从太空看到的仲夏红色精灵

Several transient luminous events illuminate pockets of Earth’s upper atmosphere. A line of thunderstorms off the coast of South Africa powers the rare phenomena.
NASA/Matthew Dominick

NASA astronaut Matthew Dominick photographed red sprites in Earth’s upper atmosphere from the International Space Station on June 3, 2024. The bright red flashes (more easily seen by clicking on the photo to see a larger version) are a less understood phenomena associated with powerful lightning events and appear high above the clouds in the mesosphere. Transient Luminous Events (TLEs), including red sprites, are colorful bursts of energy that appear above storms as a result of lightning activity occurring in and below storms on Earth.

Crew members typically capture TLEs with wide focal lengths during Earth timelapses. Instruments mounted outside station, like Atmosphere-Space Interactions Monitor (ASIM), can capture a range of data for researchers on Earth using cameras, photometers, X-ray and gamma-ray detectors. Learn more about seeing storms from space.

While space station crew hunt for TLEs from space, you can help right here on Earth: send your photographs of sprites and other TLEs to NASA’s citizen science project, Spritacular, to contribute to a crowdsourced database that professional scientists can use for research.

Image Credit: NASA/Matthew Dominick

几个瞬态发光事件照亮了地球上层大气的一些区域。南非海岸的一系列雷暴引发了这一罕见现象。
NASA/Matthew Dominick

NASA宇航员马修·多米尼克于2024年6月3日从国际空间站拍摄了地球高层大气中的红色精灵。照片中明亮的红色闪光（点击照片查看大图更容易看到）是一种与强大雷电事件相关但不太为人了解的现象，出现在云层上方的中间层。瞬态发光事件（TLEs），包括红色精灵，是由于地球上雷暴中及雷暴下发生的雷电活动而出现在雷暴上方的彩色能量爆发。

空间站的机组成员通常在地球延时摄影中使用广角镜头捕捉瞬态发光事件。安装在空间站外部的仪器，如大气-空间相互作用监测器（ASIM），可以利用摄像机、光度计、X射线和伽马射线探测器捕捉一系列数据供地球上的研究人员使用。了解关于从太空观察风暴的更多信息。

当空间站的机组成员在太空中寻找瞬态发光事件时，你也可以在地球上提供帮助：将你拍摄到的精灵和其他瞬态发光事件的照片发送到NASA的公民科学项目精灵奇观（Spritacular），为专业科学家们可以用来进行研究的众包数据库做贡献。

图片来源: NASA/Matthew Dominick