Weather: ISS detects blue “ jets ” of lightning pulling stormy clouds upwards

Blue “ jets ” of lightning pulling up storm clouds have been detected by an instrument aboard the International Space Station, a study has found.

Measured by the European Space Agency’s Atmosphere-Space Interactions Monitor (ASIM), the phenomenon originated in a cloudy summit above the peaceful island of Nauru.

It reached the stratosphere – experts estimate the blue jets can cover distances of up to 50 km – and lasted less than a second.

Because blue jets form above the cloud layer, they are very difficult to see – and study – from below the Earth’s surface.

Orbiting about 400 kilometers around the clouds, the International Space Station enjoys an unobstructed view.

Understanding the formation of blue jets – and other energetic phenomena in the stratosphere and above – can reveal clues to the onset of lightning.

Experts also believe that the blue jets may play a role in influencing the concentrations of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere – something that studies need to investigate further.

ASIM – a collection of optical cameras and photometers, as well as an X-ray and gamma detector – was installed on the International Space Station in 2018.

The monitor was designed to search for electric shocks that originate from stormy weather conditions and extend above thunderstorms in the upper atmosphere.

The blue jet recently detected by ASIM was triggered by an intense series of five 10-microsecond flashes, the researchers reported.

Also generated by the flash were the so-called “ elves ” – expanding rings of optical and ultraviolet emissions that appear at the bottom of the ionosphere, about 80 km above the Earth’s surface.

They are formed by electrons and radio waves interacting with the atmosphere.

“Blue jets are lightning-like atmospheric electrical discharges lasting several hundred milliseconds that propagate in cones as they propagate from the tops of thunderstorm clouds into the stratosphere,” the authors wrote. researchers in their article.

“They are believed to initiate an electrical failure between the positively charged upper region of a cloud and a negatively charged layer at the edge of the cloud and in the air above,” they continued.

“The blackout forms a leader who turns into streamers upon upward propagation. However, the properties of the leader and the altitude at which it extends above the clouds are not well characterized.

“This article is an impressive highlight of the many new phenomena ASIM is observing above thunderstorms,” said Astrid Orr, ESA’s physical sciences coordinator for human and robotic spaceflight.

‘[It] shows that we still have so much to discover and learn about our Universe.

“Congratulations to all the scientists and university teams who made this possible, as well as to the engineers who built the observatory and to the field support teams operating ASIM,” she continued.

The effort, she concluded, was “a true international collaboration that led to some amazing discoveries.”

The full results of the study were published in the journal Nature.