It’s wild that we’re still discovering new weather phenomena, but the gigantic jets seen here were only identified in 2002. This uncommon type of lightning shoots up from the tops of thunderstorms into the ionosphere. The video/image above was caught by cameras normally used to monitor meteors. The jets themselves are red in color, a result of the electrical discharge interacting with nitrogen in the atmosphere. (Video and image credits: b/w – Caribbean Astronomy Society, color – F. Lucena; via Gizmodo)
More Gigantic Jets
