Something More Powerful than a Sprite
Taken by Frankie Lucena on September 12, 2010 @
Cabo Rojo,Puerto Rico
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Details:
Gigantic Jets have been described as red sprites on steroids. I not only was able to photograph this one but I also saw it with my own eyes. It was totally awesome to say the least. It has been confirmed as a Gigantic Jet by Walt Lyons of FMA research,researcher Oscar van der Velde of France and Otha H. Vaughn from Nasa(Retired).
I decided to enhance and animate this color photo to show what I saw that night. Its not pretty but it will have to do for now. I was able to capture the rising channel or stem,the blue luminous beads transitioning to red as it traveled upward towards the Ionosphere and also the flash of lightning triggered by the GJ. Unlike sprites there is no cloud to ground lightning bolt associated with the GJ. With a GJ all you get is a bright flash within the cloud. I labeled two stars,Beta Gruis and Al Nair,to hopefully calculate the height of this GJ.
Photo Details: Kodak Z740 5.1 megapixel camera set to F/3.1 for 8 seconds at Iso 400.
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