Red Sprite Lightning

I haven't posted an Astronomy Photo of the Day (APOD) for a long time.  

There are two sky phenomena that intrigue me greatly:  the auroras and lightning.  

Today's APOD shows a very uncommon set of events...Northern Lights as far south as South Dakota, a clash of storm systems, and the creation of a Red Sprite...caught on camera.

APOD Explanation: What's that in the sky? It is a rarely seen form of lightning confirmed only about 25 years ago: a red sprite. Recent research has shown that following a powerful positive cloud-to-ground lightning strike, red sprites may start as 100-meter balls of ionized air that shoot down from about 80-km high at 10 percent the speed of light and are quickly followed by a group of upward streaking ionized balls. The above image, taken a few days ago above central South Dakota, USA, captured a bright red sprite, and is a candidate for the first color image ever recorded of a sprite and aurora together. Distant storm clouds cross the bottom of the image, while streaks of colorful aurora are visible in the background. Red sprites take only a fraction of a second to occur and are best seen when powerful thunderstorms are visible from the side.  

http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/

Solar Prominences and Solar Max!

At the end of September, 2010, our own personal star (no, not You, silly, or any of those jaloonies on that television show) had a bit of a hissy-fit (rather like some of those jaloonies on that television show)



This is a still-photo from Astronomy Photo of the Day.

Credit: SOHO-EIT Consortium, ESA, NASA

Explanation: What's that coming over the edge of the Sun? What might appear at first glance to be some sort of Sun Monster is actually a solar prominence. The above prominence, captured by the Sun-orbiting SOHO satellite earlier this year during an early stage of its eruption, rapidly became one of the largest ever on record. Even as pictured, the prominence is huge -- the Earth would easily fit inside. Asolar prominence is a thin cloud of solar gas held just above the surface by theSun's magnetic field. A quiescent prominence typically lasts about a month, while an eruptive prominence like the one developing above may erupt within hours into a Coronal Mass Ejection (CME), expelling hot gas into the Solar System. Although very hot, prominences typically appear dark when viewed against the Sun, since they are slightly cooler than the surface. As our Sun evolves toward Solar maximum over the next three years, more large eruptive prominences are expected.

I say, GO solar prominences, because that translates into magnificent aurora borealis down here on our planet Earth.  AND, I've been invited to go along with some California friends to visit Churchill, Manitoba to see polar bears and Northern Lights, probably next November.