Red ‘Jellyfish Sprites’ Triggered By Solar Minimum Spotted Over Kansas

A storm chaser was able to snap rare photos of sprites in the sky that resemble a giant jellyfish. According to a space weather forecasting site, the sprites probably became more prominent due to the current solar minimum conditions.

A sprite is usually red-colored lightning or electrical discharge that occurs over thunderstorm clouds. Sprites often appear in clusters at altitudes of 50 to 90 kilometers.

Like lightning, sprites only appear in the sky for only a fraction of a second. Due to their speed and location where they form, sprites are almost impossible to view.

Recently, however, storm chaser Michael Gavan of Bethune, Colorado was able to take stunning photos of brightly-colored sprites in the sky. According to Gavan, the sprites appeared over northwestern Kansas while he was chasing a tornado in the area.

As the skies cleared up, he saw large clusters of sprites flashing in the sky. Gavan noted that the shapes produced by the rare phenomenon resembled that of a jellyfish.

“Extremely bright 'jellyfish' sprites were easily visible naked-eye through the evening twilight,” he said, according to SpaceWeather.com. “This is a frame grab of the brightest one I managed to capture with my astrophotography-modified Canon T3i.”

According to Gavan, the sprites appeared in the sky for quite a while, giving him enough time to switch his equipment to take better photos. In one of the images he captured, he edited out the stars and airglow to highlight the sprites.

SpaceWeather.com explained that the sprites most likely became prominent due to the ongoing solar minimum condition. This is a period with the least solar activity in the Sun’s 11-year cycle. As of this writing, it has been 23 days since the last sunspot appeared on the Sun’s surface.

The Sun’s magnetic field gets weaker during the solar minimum. Due to its weakened state, cosmic rays from deep space can easily enter the Solar System without being affected by the Sun’s magnetic field. Past studies have shown that these cosmic rays can help trigger the formation of sprites by creating electrically conductive paths in the atmosphere.