The red sprites are luminous flashes that form a strange red spot with strange randomized contours in the upper sky. This red spot extends from about fifteen kilometers to about fifty kilometers high.
The phenomenon is extremely brief: three tenth of a second. Because of this extreme brevity, nobody wanted to believe pilots reports, until back in 1990 when they were finally confirmed by video. The pilot reports of red stripes were dismissed as hallucinations or eyesight problems.
The first images of red sprites were obtained in 1990 from the ground and from the Discovery American space shuttle.
Above:This is the first color television image of a red sprite taken from a NASA jet during the night from July 3rd July 4th, 1994, during investigation by a research project of the University of Alaska about this phenomenon.
The phenomenon occurs very high in the sky, raising up to a hundred kilometers above stormy zones. They are very regularly visible on the video recordings of the old Russian space station MIR, and on videos taken during NASA space shuttle missions.
Pilots seldom see the phenomenon, because the normal storm flashes and lightings necessary to generate red sprites above them are much brighter, which adds up to the brevity of the event and the fact that the red color is not ideal for the focal vision and more appeals to peripheral vision.
There is also a project to film them from the International Space Station (ISS), within the framework of a draft study of Département Analyse Surveillance de l'Environnement (DASE) of the French Commission of Atomic Energy (CEA). Their devised LSO (Lights and Sprites Observation) experiment will determine if a small dedicated satellite named Taramis, under study for specifically collecting data on this phenomenon, will be launched by CNES (CNES is the NASA French counterpart - Centre National d'Etudes Spatiales).
The explanation:
The physicists who studied them think that these extremely short flashes are due to cosmic radiations tearing off electrons on the upper surface of the high clouds. The generated electron beam acts on the nitrogen molecules of the atmosphere and the reaction produces the constant characteristic red color. The phenomenon is also accompanied by x-rays and gamma rays emission.
Red sprites and the UFO phenomenon:
It is erroneous to think that the UFO phenomenon UFO might be explained by the red sprites phenomenon:
Red sprites are a very high altitude phenomenon, their top reaches the extreme limit of the atmosphere, it does not explain any UFO case under the level of clouds or involving a landing, or any testimony of encounter with extraterrestrial beings.
Red sprites do not move, they are too brief. The majority of UFO reports mention a displacement, and there is almost no example of reports considered serious UFO report in which the duration of the observation is below the second.
Red sprites are a natural phenomenon, they cannot explain UFO reports in which the UFOS showed an intelligent behavior, for example by chasing or avoiding aircraft.
Red sprites are a luminous phenomenon, of red color. UFO sightings often refer to objects described as solid, possibly metallic, with many cases where an actual machine is described, and not necessarily just a luminous phenomenon. Also, the red color is not a constant in UFO sightings.
No Air Force ever scrambled its jet fighters to chase red sprites, no qualified UFO case was ever a pilot report for which an investigation would have demonstrated that what a pilot considered to be a non terrestrial flying machine was actually a red sprite.
The size of these red sprites is in the range of fifty kilometers height, which is incompatible with the vast majority of UFO reports where the UFO generally has a much smaller size.
The red sprites appear only above thunderstorms area, whereas UFO sightings are not occurring only in the event of storm at all.
In other words, an observation of UFO is explainable as a manifestation of the red sprites phenomenon if and only if:
the phenomenon lasts less than three tenth of a second, except for the observer's approximations,
the phenomenon has its low point within 20 kilometers of altitude, and goes up from 15 to 50 kilometers higher,
the phenomenon is of red color,
the phenomenon occurs above a zone of storms, with thunderbolts and lightning,
the phenomenon is only a luminous phenomenon,
the phenomenon does not show any sign of intelligent control,
the phenomenon does not show occupants, portholes, artificial structure,
the phenomenon is stationary.
References:
"Lightning Between Earth and Space", in the August 1997 issue of Scientific American.
Franz, R.C., R.J. Nemzek, and J.R. Winckler, "Television image of a large upward electrical discharge above a thunderstorm system", Science, 249, 48-51, 1990.
Bell, T.F., V.P. Pasko and U.S. Inan, 1995: "Runaway electrons as a source of Red Sprites in the mesosphere", Geophys. Res. Lett., 22, 2127-2130.
Bell, T.F., S.C. Reising and U.S. Inan, 1998: "Intense continuing currents following positive cloud - to - ground lightning associated with red sprites", Geophys. Res. Lett. 25, 1285-1288.
Cho, M. and M.J. Rycroft, C. "Clustering of Red Sprites", Kyushu Institute of Technology, Kitakyushu, Japan.
Dowden, R.L., J.B. Brundell, W.A. Lyons and T.E. Nelson, 1996: "Detection and location of red sprites by VLF scattering of subionospheric transmissions", Geophys. Res. Letters, 23, 1737-1740.
Dowden, R.L., J.B. Brundell, W.A. Lyons and T.E. Nelson, 1996: "The structure of red sprites and elves determined by VLF scattering", IEEE Antennas and Prop. Mag., 38, 7-15.
Hardman, S., C.J. Rodger, R.L. Dowden and J.B. Brundell, 1998: "Measurements of the VLF scatter pattern of the structured plasma of red sprites", IEEE Antennas Propag. Mag., 40(2), 29-38.
Heavner, M.J., D.D. Sentman, E.M. Wescott, D.L. Hampton, D.L. Osborne and J.D. Williams, 1994: "spatial dimensions of red sprites and blue jets as triangulated from two aircraft", EOS Supplement, 75(44), 115, Poster Presented at Fall AGU Meeting.
Huang, E. W., 1998: "Electromagnetic transients, elves and red sprites in the earth-ionosphere waveguide", M. Eng. thesis, Mass. Inst. of Technology, Cambridge.
Lyons, W.A., R.J. Vavrek, R.L. Holle and J. Allsopp, 1999: "Mysterious lightning: Red sprites - blue jets - elves", The Earth Scientist. 6pp.
Morrill, J.S., E.J. Bucsela, V.P. Pasko, S.L. Berg, M.J. Heavner, D.R. Moudry, W.M. Benesch, E.M. Wescott and D.D. Sentman, 19998: "Time resolved N2 triplet state vibrational populations and emissions associated with red sprites", J. Atmos. Solar-Terr. Phys., 60, 811-830.
