NASA regularly shares stunning images from our universe, leaving the space lovers mesmerised. This time, the American space agency shared a captivating image showing gigantic jets soaring from a thunderstorm towards the Himalayas in China and Bhutan. This composite image, shared by NASA's Astronomy Picture of the Day last week, reveals four long jets captured within minutes of each other. This lightning discharge, only recorded in the 21st century, bridges the gap between thunderstorms and the Earth's ionosphere, the layer of the atmosphere that is ionised by solar and cosmic radiation, NASA said.
"Pictured here are gigantic jets shooting up from a thunderstorm last week toward the Himalayan Mountains in China and Bhutan. The composite image captured four long jets that occurred only minutes apart. Gigantic jets, documented only in this century, are a type of lightning discharge that occurs between some thunderstorms and the Earth's ionosphere high above them," the space agency wrote in the image description.
NASA explained that these gigantic jets are an unusual type of lightning that is much different from regular cloud-to-cloud and cloud-to-ground lightning. "The bottoms of gigantic jets appear similar to a cloud-to-above strike called blue jets, while the tops appear similar to upper-atmosphere red sprites," the agency said.
Further, according to weather.com, gigantic jets pack 50 times the power of a regular lightning strike and can travel as high as 80 kilometres above the Earth's surface.
Despite ongoing research, the precise mechanisms and triggers behind these magnificent jets remain elusive. However, what is understood is their role in balancing the electrical charge between different layers of the atmosphere, the space agency explained.
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For those interested in observing this phenomenon, a powerful but distant thunderstorm viewed from a clear vantage point offers the best chance, NSAS said. As these jets typically shoot upwards from the storm tops into the ionosphere, they can often be seen from hundreds of kilometres away under the right conditions, it added.
Meanwhile, in a similar incident in 2019, a plane passenger took an image of a gigantic jet lightning seen beyond the aircraft's wing. The jet was captured on a single 3.2-second exposure above Bhadrak, India, NASA said.
