3. The Different Shapes of Red Lightning
Red lightning takes many amazing forms and shapes, each with distinct qualities. The most often occurring form is “sprites,” which resemble huge red jellyfish or carrots hung in the heavens. These really amazing displays can span many kilometres in width and reach up to 90 km in height.
“Elves,” (Emission of Light and Very Low Frequency Perturbations owing to Electromagnetic Pulse Sources), are another type of red lightning. These show as fast growing rings of red light with sizes up to 400 kilometres. Just a nanosecond or less, elves are even more ephemeral than sprites.
Another type of upper-atmospheric lightning that, despite their name, can occasionally seem reddish are “blue jets.” From the summits of thunderclouds, these narrow cones of blue light soar skyward, but at higher altitudes their interaction with nitrogen in the mesosphere causes them to turn crimson.
Smaller, more localised types of red lightning occurring nearer the cloud tops have also been seen by researchers as “gnomes” and “pixies.” Red lightning events’ variety of forms and sizes still fascinates scientists and motivates more investigation on the complicated mechanics of upper-atmospheric energy.