European Space Agency spaceman Thomas Pesquet has partake a arresting picture of the Earth at night involve while the International Space Station ( ISS ) flew over Italy . But " lo stivale " – the " boot " of Italy – is not the most interesting characteristic . In the space , we can see a uncommon transient luminous issue ( TLE ) happening in the ambience .
There are many types of coloured upper - atmosphere light , which is what TLEs are . Based on the colour of this one , the event might have been a rareblue jetor drear coup d’oeil . These lightning - like electrical discharges spud from the upper side of thunder clouds up to 50 kilometer ( 30 miles ) into the stratosphere and last bare milliseconds .
They are usually hard to see from Earth , due to the tempest clouds , and our atmosphere , getting in the direction . The ISS , however , is equipped with theAtmosphere - Space Interactions Monitor(ASIM ) , which reports the most queer electric result that occur high above the cloud . It has spottedsome sinful eventsover the age .
“ This is a very rare natural event and we have a quickness outside Europe ’s Columbus lab dedicated to take note these flashes of light . The Space Station is extremely well suited for this observatory as it take flight over the equator where there are more thunderstorms , ” Pesquet wrote inthe exposure ’s caption .
“ My friend Andreas Mogensen has a large part to wreak in this story , he was the first to capture them from distance ( in only 10 Day on the Space Station he did all this , legend ! ) proving the worth of own a facility to monitor the newsflash ! ' ”
For 10 , these TLE event had lilliputian evidence supporting them . There were anecdotical report from pilot film but not much that scientist could go on . Now we know a whole bunch of these unusual type of lightning – jet , sprites , andelves – exist . Using the ISS to study the upper atmosphere has earmark us to trance incredible information to better understand this previously undiscovered proportion of electrical storm . We ’ve even seen them frolickingon other major planet .
