Scientists Discover the Source of Strange "Blue Jet" Lightning

Scientists have gotten a look at what it is that causes a strange electrical phenomenon called blue jet lightning. Instruments on the International Space Station did what had been impossible for scientists on land. Per Science News's breakdown, blue jets -- which fire upward from lightning clouds into the stratosphere, rather than down to the ground -- have been observed by scientists and pilots for years, but without having a topside view of the lightning clouds, finding the cause or source was difficult. Since most pilots will tell you that flying through an active thunder cloud is not ideal unless it's absolutely necessary, that limits observation options.

The blue jet gets its name from its color, and gets its color from what it burns off in the atmosphere. Traditional lightning is interacting with a wide variety of gases on its way to the ground, but the upward movement of the blue jets means that the electric bolt is burning mostly nitrogen, which burns blue at that temperature.

According to Science News, blue jets can reach altitudes of about 31 miles (50 kilometers) in less than a second.

Scientists have finally gotten a clear view of the spark that sets off an exotic type of lightning called a blue jet.

The Space Station last week spotted a blue jet emerging from an extremely brief, bright burst of electricity that happened near the top of a thunder cloud. Scientists reported the find on January 20.

While blue jets and other upper-atmosphere weather events are unlikely to cause serous inuries to people or animals, scientists monitor and study them not just for the academic understanding of the natural world, but for more practical reasons as well; such events can impact how radio waves travel, impacting satellites and other communications technology.

Scientists are trying to figure out what might be special about the sparks that generate the blue jets. The blast reported in January -- and recorded in February 2019 -- was a 10-microsecond flash of bright blue light, which took place near the top of the cloud, about 10 miles up.

Torsten Neubert, an atmospheric physicist at the Technical University of Denmark in Kongens Lyngby quoted in the Science News piece, suspects that the spark may have been a unique kind of short-range electric discharge inside of the cloud. That would account for the brief, intense blast, because while traditional lightning is caused by discharges between oppositely charged objects many kilometers apart, these short term sparks might bring the oppositely-charged areas within about a kilometer, creating powerful bursts of current that would burn up fast. Evidence of such bursts are nothing new, but this could provide new insight into the phenomenon.