It didn’t last a second but a blue jet flash shot out from the top of a thunderstorm and was filmed by a camera on the International Space Station (ISS).
NASA Earth Observatory released a photo of a seldom seen type of lightning called a blue jet.
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Unlike the traditional lightning that we see from the ground, blue jets shoot upward from the tops of thunderstorms toward the edge of space. In less than a second, a jet can reach the stratopause (50 kilometers above Earth’s surface).
The first video ever seen of a blue jet was taken when the ISS flew over the Bay of Bengal in 2015.
Astronaut Andreas Mogensen noticed an intense thunderstorm developing over the Bay of Bengal. He shot 160 seconds of video with a Nikon D4, capturing 245 brief blue discharges in the top layer of a cloud that is seen rising into the stratosphere.
The thundercloud is illuminated by traditional lightning.
The researchers think blue flashes at the tops of thunderstorms might be common—an important factor when considering their effect on Earth’s atmosphere.