New observations of Earth’s lightning as seen in outer space is throwing mild to larger understanding of the topic. Several ‘blue jets’ and ‘elves’ captured from a brand new telescope may even present perception into how greenhouse gases are concentrated in Earth’s environment. The analysis has been revealed in Nature on 20 January and the paper defines blue jets as “lightning-like, atmospheric electric discharges of several hundred millisecond duration that fan into cones as they propagate from the top of thunderclouds into the stratosphere”.
The blue jet phenomenon has remained poorly understood due to restricted monitoring capabilities of on-the-ground telescopes. This modified when International Space Station’s Atmosphere Space Interactions Monitor (ASIM) observatory caught a blue jet or blue lightning. This observatory has the power to look at lightning from space and not too long ago captured a single blue jet and 4 ‘elves’ – optical and ultraviolet emissions from the underside of the ionosphere – throughout a thunderstorm.
“Looking down on Earth’s weather from the International Space Station 400 km above, ASIM’s enhanced perspective is shedding new light on weather phenomena and their characteristics,” a statement from the European Space Agency (ESA) stated ASIM has been on the International Space Station since 2018 and has numerous gear like photometers (used for measuring mild depth), optical cameras, an X-ray and gamma-ray detector for finishing up its remark. The assertion added that such “bizarre-sounding” phenomena because the blue jets are “very difficult to observe from the surface of the Earth” and therefore has saved disillusioning scientists for years.
The paper stated that the lightning flashes had been noticed within the central Pacific Ocean, near the island of Nauru throughout a thunderstorm. The ASIM had captured the blue jet to shoot up from a cloud and lead to an “intense five 10-microsecond flash”. Researchers suppose these phenomena might even “influence the concentration of greenhouse gasses” in Earth’s environment, thereby making their analysis extra essential.