NASA captures spectacular images of giant jets over Himalayan peaks

The composite image, featured in NASA’s Astronomy Picture of the Day last week, captures four elongated jets just minutes apart.

According to the description, the image captured four giant jets occurring just minutes apart. These events, the only ones recorded this century, are interactions between the lightning that occurs in certain thunderstorms and the Earth’s ionosphere above them.

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“They are an unusual type of lightning that is very different from regular cloud-to-cloud and cloud-to-ground lightning. The lower parts of the giant jets appear similar to cloud-to-ground lightning called blue jets, while the upper parts appear similar to red sprites of the upper atmosphere,” the description added.

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What are giant jets?

Giant jets are electrical discharge events that originate in thunderstorms but differ significantly from blue jets and sprites. They begin as intra-cloud glows between the central negative and upper positive charge regions of a thunderstorm cloud.

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The process begins with a negatively charged leader moving upward from the cloud toward the ionosphere. Unlike blue jets, which begin between the upper positive charge region and a negative screening layer, giant jets reach much higher altitudes, terminating about 90 km (55 mi) above the Earth’s surface.

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Although the exact cause of the giant jets is still a subject of ongoing research, it is clear that these jets play a role in balancing the electrical charge in different layers of the Earth’s atmosphere.

An effective way to observe giant jets is to observe intense storms from a vantage point with clear visibility, NASA said.

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Published: June 26, 2024, 12:42 PM IST