Video of that sprite, above thunderstorms in Southeast Asia. The sprite is a brief flash, in left half of frame, early in the video. We inserted a temporary green arrow, to help identify where the sprite occurs. Credit: NASA.
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Earth's atmosphere with airglow over Southeast Asia at night, with a sprite above tropical thunder clouds.
Airglow at night is continuous high altitude air gas optical emission, releasing energy that had been accumulated during the daytime.
Sprites are transient (brief) electric/optical discharges from plasma in the atmosphere above thunderclouds.
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Higher resolution (full Earth image link below), zoomed and cropped, showing #atmosphere #airglow east of Africa. Note how the clouds are closer to Earth than the rest of the atmosphere.
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The European Space Agency is expanding its growing fleet of Earth-observing science Scout missions with the selection of two new satellites: Hibidis and SOVA-S.Chosen from four final competing concepts, these missions will tackle very different but equally pressing scientific questions – from biodiversity below forest canopies to the effects of atmospheric gravity waves high above Earth.
Standing on the Shoulders of Giants
This photograph comes from the heart of the Sierra La Giganta in Baja California Sur, Mexico, following a two-day expedition from the small village of San Juan Londo. The final approach required an ascent of more than 800 metres by mule along a long-forgotten section of the historic Camino Real, once used by vaqueros and their donkeys to transport goods between remote settlements.
Photograph: Nacho Peláez
NOIRLab image of the week
Milky Way Glows Over Rubin
Credit: NSF–DOE Vera C. Rubin Observatory/NOIRLab/SLAC/AURA/H. Stockebrand
https://noirlab.edu/public/images/iotw2616a/
#NOIRLab #Astronomy #Rubin #RubinObs #RubinObservatory #Astrophysics #Astrodon #photography #astrophotography #nightphotography #Chile #MilkyWay #airglow
Atmospheric glow, often referred to as #Airglow, is a faint emission of light by a planetary atmosphere caused by chemical reactions triggered by solar radiation during the day.
Unlike the aurora, which is driven by high-energy solar particles hitting the poles, airglow occurs across the entire sky and is most visible from space as a thin, luminous bubble wrapping the Earth.
Milky Way Interrupted: The Anthropocene Inscribed in Starlight
(This post is being modified)https://gregurbano.com/2026/01/08/milky-way-interrupted-the-anthropocene-inscribed-in-starlight/
#PhotoOfTheDay: #MilkyWay and #Airglow
The Milky Way stretches below the curve of Earth's limb in the scene that also records a faint red, extended airglow.
The galaxy's central bulge appears with starfields cut by dark rifts of obscuring interstellar dust. The picture was taken by Astronaut Scott Kelly in August, 2015, the 135th day of his one-year mission in space.
#Airglow is a faint, natural emission of light in Earth's atmosphere that prevents the night sky from ever being completely dark.
It occurs when gas molecules, energized by solar radiation during the day, release that energy as a subtle, colorful glow.
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