IAA authors:
Passas M.;Rio J.S.D.;Luque A.;Gordillo-Vazquez F.J.
Authors:
Passas M., Rio J.S.D., Luque A., Gordillo-Vazquez F.J.
Journal:
IEEE Transactions on Plasma Science
Abstract:
Sprites and halos are two types of the so-called transient luminous events occurring in the upper layers (40-90 km) of the earth atmosphere. Their spectacular appearance is due to the optical emissions from mesospheric plasmas caused by the electric breakdown of the high-altitude rarified air. While halos look like flattened diffuse flashes of light appearing between 80 and 85 km, sprites exhibit a sharp transition between the upper diffuse and lower plasma streamer regions, as observed in one of the images shown here. © 2014 IEEE.
Keywords:
Geophysics; geoscience and remote sensing; meteorology; nuclear and plasma sciences; plasmas.