Cameras become cheaper and we record the happenings on Earth in more and more detail. This has been happening for years, of course, and has revealed that there can be a distinct lack of eyes to actually evaluate all that video – for example, England has been recording certain cities in great deal as a crime detection & prevention measure and then discovered they didn’t have the personnel to watch all the movies.
But that’s all mundane. We also have the starry eyed crazies who watch the skies, both in person and – lucky us – on video. Spaceweather.com references the Gemini Observatory and its Cloud Camera All Night Video, which keeps an eye on the weather near Mauna Kea and its complement of expensive observatories. And what did they see?
On July 24, a rare lightning phenomenon called a Gigantic Jet. The general collection of movies is provided at the link, above, but the movie containing the specific link is here:
I managed to catch the lightning at the 5 second mark, scraped the screen, and present my lazy, unprocessed effort below. Here’s Spaceweather.com on the phenomenon:
Sometimes called “space lightning,” Gigantic Jets and their cousins the sprites are true space weather phenomena. They inhabit the upper atmosphere alongside auroras, meteors and noctilucent clouds. Some researchers believe they are linked to cosmic rays: subatomic particles from deep space striking the top of Earth’s atmosphere produce secondary electrons that could, in turn, provide the spark for these upward bolts.
The link to cosmic rays is particularly interesting at this time. For the past two years, space weather balloons have observed a steady increase in deep space radiation penetrating our atmosphere. This increase is largely due to the decline in the solar cycle. Flagging solar wind pressure and weakening sunspot magnetic fields allow more cosmic rays into the inner solar system–a trend which is expected to continue for for years to come. These changes could add up to more Gigantic Jets in the future. Stay tuned!
More pictures, more discussion at the link above!
