I'm loving the comments on this video, with some great suggestions for follow-up episodes. If you want more in a series around atmospheric phenomena, please like and share this one, and I'll definitely do more. Also, carrying on suggesting! I'm making a list of potential episode topics...
I remember hearing that high altitude aircraft pilots saw these frequently, but never reported them due to fear of them being hallucinations and getting labelled unfit to fly
I think you're mixing up stories. Early astronauts saw flashes in their eyes because of cosmic rays (which are blocked by the atmosphere at low altitudes) but none of them mentioned it for a long time because the explanation of cosmic rays stimulating the optic nerve of individual astronauts wasn't obvious.
When I lived in Hawaii .. during the summer at night we could look towards the horizon and see JUST the tops of huge thunder storms blowing far south of the island . When it was dark you could see the red sprites , it was so cool
@@cajunlady4893 they are so faint it would have required super special camera. I recall many nights sitting on the beach , a little drunk with French fries watching them.
Having spent a lifetime working as an airline pilot I have seen many a spectacular light display. Thunderstorms are the only meteorological phenomena that actually scare me and are best avoided . Some years back a South American airliner approaching New Zealand had a close encounter with a space rock entering the atmosphere. Those on board were not only treated to a spectacular flash of light but also heard and felt the sonic boom inside the airplane. Sure would be bad luck to be knocked out of the sky by a meteor.
@@mitseraffej5812 OK. I saw one explode directly infront of a friend and I walking one night. Maybe 2015-17 north east of Auckland. Though it may be related. My friend was convinced it was car headlights. The boom came seconds after and he said he didn't hear anything. The next day it was in the news. Although we stood next to each other we had totally different recollections.
In Kansas (USA) many years ago, there was a lady actually struck IN HER HOUSE by a meteorite and LIVED... Had she not been covered in quilts and blankets at the time, she probably would have died... and there WAS scandal and controversy around the arguments about whether it was just someone screwing around with a cannon or something for a while, BUT the local university DID confirm it to be a REAL meteorite... broke through the roof of her house and hit her on the couch below... SO it might have less chance than winning a lottery, but SOMEONE wins the lottery from time to time... remember that. ;o)
You may have just answered a question I've had for close to a decade. I remember seeing something that I would describe for years like "a bolt of lightning that moved like a drop of water" and it kind of looked like these blue jets/starters. Although this traveled downward instead of upward, but it's the closest thing I've ever seen to date so maybe that was it.
Grew up in Denver, and the late afternoon thunderstorms would drift way out into the plains as the sun set so you could see over the tops of them by night time. Would often see flashes of lightning on the horizon. I may have seen sprites and just didn't know it as a kid. It was the perfect opportunity too. Probably too much city light really. Either way, awesome video explaining these hauntingly beautiful phenomena.
Did it come out the ground? Did it emit a flash as it propelled itself to space? It rain down particles and you were somewhere else for 20 minutes? Only the plants are luminous. This is what happened to me and others have similar from being in close proximity of the "natural phenomena".
I knew about all these atmospheric effects in the '90s in a program called "Raging Planet" that was on Discovery Channel. So, I'm pretty sure there was enough evidence back then.
These acronyms like SPRITE and ELVES are really mythological. They seem to be other worldly when seen. The world we live on is amazing on so many levels.
@@JohnGardnerAlhadis better fact: Put DMT in a pill capsule and ingest it. Better DMT experience and much longer. Just make sure you are in a positive state of mind and with people you are comfortable being yourself
I love going through these comments and seeing everyone's experiences. I saw sprites above a thunderstorm a couple years back and when I told my family everyone thought I was seeing things, good to know I'm not losing it and these are real phenomenons
Netflix has been doing a documentary on this for the last few years. It's about a place called the "upside down" and a lot of strange things happen happened with it back in the 80s.
I remember seeing my first ‘blue jets’ as a child from an airliner at night. I kept seeing this spray of light shoot upwards immediately after lightning strikes. I’ve seen them dozens of times since, I’m always looking for them. They don’t always occur. Internet didn’t exist then, but I remember that what little research I could find, scientists said they were ‘ unproven.’ And even this video says “recently discovered,” which is kinda funny because pilots have reported them since they first took to the skies. And I’m sure ancient peoples witnessed them as well when conditions were just right. Fascinating stuff.
A common theme is scientist think pilots are fools and rarely take them seriously. Rogue waves got a similar treatment, with albeit much more deadly consequences
Eye witness reports can’t often be submitted as “proof” of something. I guess when they mean “recently” discovered is that they have gotten picture/video evidence from reliable sources as to the existence of these phenomena.
@RCBones couldn’t tell ya, my only guess is that they had gotten sufficient evidence to be able to describe these phenomena in a way that makes since according to our knowledge of science.
its because people are so defensive against new ideas, absolutely stupid. should always listen to what someone has to say once without immediately dismissing them
There's also the newly discovered (I believe) "green ghosts" that happen along side red sprites. There's a great video by Pecos Hank on UA-cam showing the phenomenon.
Not exactly alongside, since it is all connected, but higher in the atmosphere. Ghosts have been documented in images further back, but were not noticed until 2019 by “Pecos Hank” Schyma and Paul M. Smith. The hypothesis is that ghosts are extremely high extensions of sprites, exciting oxygen in the lowest levels of the atmosphere where aurora occur (which is still way the heck up there), hence the green color. This hypothesis is unconfirmed, however, and would make an interesting doctoral dissertation. Somebody younger than me go for it!
Pecos Hank, my fav storm chaser, has been discussing this phenomenon for a few years now. He's got some great vids on his channel if anyone is interested in further research.
blue jets, sprite, blue starter, gigantic jets, elves... sound like a futuristic Christmas themed story where the elves and a sprite fought or something. The Elves' gigantic jet destroyed the lone sprite in the blue jet
You missed a recent thing that's being looked into called "GHOSTS" - Green emissions from excited Oxygen in Sprite Tops. Where a quick flash of green is observed above Red Sprites that looks a little bit like an aurora.
I've always spent hours watching the sky here in Maine, ever since I was a little kid. One of the most interesting things I've seen was a rapid pulse of vivid blue light late at night out of a mostly clear sky, it was very high up in the sky. It wasn't like a glow of daylight, it was tightly isolated. But the best part was immediately afterwards, where a very clear bright blue ring shot downwards from the epicenter, like a smoke ring of burning propane. A toroidal vortex of blue light. It was so beautiful and unique that my heart started beating pretty hard, it really surprised me! The whole event was over in a flash, probably less than a second. If I hadn't of been staring directly at the spot already, I'd of never seen it or thought it was just my eyes playing tricks on me.
@@voyaging4 I genuinely have no idea, I'll never forget it though. The closest thing I've ever heard is the elves phenomenon. Somebody else mentioned to me it might've been a small meteor exploding under just the right conditions as well.
Pecos Hank has a few really good videos on Transient Luminous Events as well as lightning in general. Of course, he also has amazing storm chasing footage as well
Lightning is one of the things I'm most fascinated with. The beauty and power that come with it, speed and strength of nature. There is nothing quite like it.
I HIGHLY recommend you check out the Pecos Hank channel by Hank Schyma. He is a storm chaser based out of the US who has produced some of the most detailed images of transient luminous events I've ever seen. Actually just in general, his meteorology content is incredible. I would 20/10 check his channel out.
Just looked him up after reading and watched his green ghost vid with all the red sprites and subbed right away. Awesome stuff, thanks for the recommendation!
Interesting. I never knew about these. I have experienced an extended sheet lighting show ( horizontal instead of vertical ) that occurred at night in an almost cloudless sky. We lay on the beach looking up as the lightning flashed back and forth across the sky seemingly between the stars. It was totally surreal! Photos of the event made the newspapers the next day.
Wenatchee Washington used to have sheet lightning constantly when I was a kid. It was magnificent and beautiful. We seem to barely have any thunderstorms here nowadays. 🤨🤔☹️
@@lindakay9552 This was in Cairns, Australia maybe 40 years ago. I’ve never seen anything like it since. Not sure if it was a tropical phenomenon. I’ve seen sheet lightning but the almost totally cloudless nature of it at night was spectacular.
@@lindakay9552 wow I'm so jealous, in the UK we get plenty of rain and some thunder storms but they're never that dramatic, I think because we don't have the right geography for them
Lightning is actually usually extended more in the horizontal direction than the vertical, you just can't see it well because it's in the clouds. Lightning consistently extending horizontally out of clouds is pretty rare though.
Just recently there was a news about a gigantic jet blue lightning that shot straight up in space a few days ago. So i just had to look it up and found this video. Learned something new, thanks.
The way patterns show up in all forms of nature is really mind boggling. Those sprites look just like a root structure. They generate the same structure in way less than a second.
Or blood vessels, or nerves. Everything experiences time differently. We know very little as humans and we know a whole bunch of information. You know there's just so much more though.
I remember during the super storm Odette here in Cebu Philippines when everytime before the strong whooshing wind hits, a bright green light illuminates the sky in about five seconds. It happened many times during the typhoon's landfall in our city. I've never seen such magnificent and scary phenomenon.
It might have been electrical transformers catching on fire and exploding. They are filled with oil and when struck by lightning the copper vaporizes in a green color.
@@richardyarbrough5437 I would've thought it's an electrical transformer, too. But it didn't happen once. It happened all throughout when the typhoon made a landfall. I lost count how many times the green lights flashed across the city sky. But all of us witnesses can say it happened probably more than ten times. It started at around 4pm in my city and the green lights stopped at around 6pm.
A rather beautiful episode. I've a PhD in designing lightning waveform generators for aeronautical applications. That was long-winded and practical. I prefer this video :)
If this sort of elusive effects are produced by Earth's clouds and atmosphere, can you even imagine what kind of spectacular phenomenons are going on inside gas giants, that we could possibly discover in future.
Neptune and Uranus may have the same properties as a super fluid which electricity flows without stopping. They just haven’t gotten close enough to observe this because of how distant they are. Oh the storms there are probably amazing.
This is really cool. I play Yugioh and Konami made an entire deck based on Sprites. They monsters even share the names of the different colors and are Thunder monsters.
And that was one of the coolest things I’ve seen in a while. You’ve totally earned your entire 1 million followers with such fantastic content. Congratulations.
Photos of sprites have been taken for years. The channel Pecos Hank has been making videos about these for quite some time. His tornado and wild weather videos are awesome!
The weirdest lightning I’ve seen was ball lighting shooting across the sky whilst watching “Alien” at the drive-in theatre. That added an extra dimension of creepiness.
I like how the acronyms are a couple of letters caught in basically a sentence that make up the acronym. Like some scientist REALLY wanted to name them elves and sprites.
This was an unexpected. With so many awesome things to learn about the cosmos, there's still so much to learn about our home planet. I've always love watching lightening storms as a kid but these things are crazy! Always amazing videos.
"Pecos Hank" youtuber discovered "Green ghosts" in 2019. Check out his vid "NIGHT OF THE GREEN GHOSTS" published Jul 25, 2021. Nice compliment to this Astrum video.
I will never forget seeing and hearing ball lightning. I was maybe 100m away, it was a massive "light ball", I estimate 50m in diameter (probably more) when it "struck"/"went off". It was above ground maybe 200m high. the bang was intense, short and very loud. So loud I couldn't believe the windows in the area I lived didn't shatter. very impressive/scary.
I've lived here in AZ. in and out for most of my life, and I'm 58. I love sitting on the porch watching the Thunderheads massing on the horizon, and the Amazingly Beautiful light shows they put on, rapid series of lightning flashes all throughout the clouds. Lighting them from the inside, from internal lightning flashes. From top to bottom, just everywhere. And the occasional Red Sprite, or even a VERY rare Jet, lancing up out the top. I just sit in a wonderful, magical, spell-binding Amazement, of the Natural Beauty. I sit for hours at a time usually, and it only feels like its been a few min, just enjoying Mother Natures light shows. Its better and more relaxing than a Movie or T.V. all my oohs and ahhs, and wows, all in a quiet setting where I am, miles from the Epicenter. Its better than Meditation, IMHO.
I've been in to lightning for decades, and I had no idea of these particular variations. Pretty incredible. I want to know more about the Elve(s). Really trippy.
Thanks Alex for astronomy and weather etc so interesting and accessible. About forty five years ago I saw ball lightening relatively up close (close enough for me). I have always said it looked like some sort of plasma. It was an odd looking ball about the size of a soccer ball, that 'bounced' a couple of feet from the ground. I still remember it like it was yesterday. If you haven't covered it, maybe it's worth covering?
My grandpa once told me he saw ball lightning when he was young, that a bluish sparkly ball flew through the house he lived in with his parents, and after some zig-zagging in front of the house it flew away and crashed into a nearby river.
@@TobiasDettinger there exist a few short video clips on UA-cam that may be this- no verification that I know of, but some attempts at debunking by video experts.
Great video, there's also a mysterious ground effect lightning known as "ball lightning", also near impossible to find footage for but hopefully that also comes soon
@@Fish-cj4ub They have been reported way before the science fiction genre got invented. But there are probably many different phenomena (including hallucinations) lumped together under the umbrella term "ball lightning". It's not easy to prove the existence of THE ball lightning, when A ball lightning can be a wide variety of different things.
When I was stationed in Iceland I got to see the Northern Lights. Absolutely beautiful. Presently I live in the mountains of Western NC at just under 5000 feet. Thunder storms are a lot closer to us than at lower altitudes. BTW, yes, our power system has been hit.
One time in my home it was very cloudy but did not rain and I saw pink lightnings in the sky, it kept on appearing but it did not have any loud sounds, made me feel like I’m in a stranger things episode
Fascinating. Thanks for this. As other viewers have mentioned, these phenomena do seem to evoke mythological or folk tales. Could people in the distant past have witnessed such phenomena in the skies of antiquity, free from city lights and pollution, and have incorporated them in their mythologies? It would also be interesting to do a video focusing on atmospheric phenomena on planets and moons in our own solar system! Thanks again. Great presentation, as always.
I've never seen sprites but I have seen one blue jet, which emerged from a very active distant storm cloud that was producing some pretty spectacular lightning from my vantage point. The jet was bright enough for me to see it in the early evening summer daylight, and the sun apparently drowned out the color as it appeared pale-white, but it was an extremely narrow cone of light that shot straight upward from the top of the storm cloud. The flash was so quick that I probably could've blinked and missed five of them.
this is actually one of the first off-topic vids that i have watched without seeing and/or realising the time! real great shiz right here bro, kudos to everyone in the process of making this one 😙
I've been fascinated by the phenomenon ever since I first found out about it, some years ago. I read that pilots had known about them for ages, but hadn't been believed when they'd reported them. [bit like reporting UFOs!] It's a whole new field: not only the how and why of the phenomena themselves, but how they interact with the atmosphere, maybe regulating or stabilising it in some way. And this has been going on for probably billions of years! Please can we have more or the same, or similar.
This is so freaking cool to watch. These phenomena are visible to naked eye, although it happens in a matter of milliseconds, you can still visibly see it. Now I am curious if there are other cool phenomenas that are not visible with our naked eye that occurs almost all the time without us knowing.
When I was 13, I was on a flight to Atlanta. We flew past a thunderstorm, and out the window, I briefly saw a gap between two layers of clouds. There was what I called "purple lightning", flittering between the layers. Now I think they might have been these blue jets.
Ok, so it’s been a while since I’ve seen some original scientific concept, and this absolutely blew my mind. What an amazing video, and thank you for introducing me to the deeper mysteries of our atmosphere.
One time, observing a distant storm in Brazil, I saw numerous blue jets happening above the anvil. That's the only time I've ever seen those. Never saw sprites.
For more film of sprites, elves and some spectacular storms of all kinds, check out Pecos Hank's channel. He's a storm chaser with decades of experience and works with meteorologists to understand the causes of destructive tornados.
One of my favorite creators, Pecos Hank, is a storm chaser, photographer, and musician. He's got videos about TLEs and photos he's taken of them. I was half expecting to see his name credited with some of these photos. i learned a lot about them from this video. I enjoy taking photos of the night sky. I am hoping I can get some pictures like this one day. If you want to see more of these, Pecos Hank's channel is amazing.
I remember seeing the scientific video about this and they called them sprites like the mythical fairies because they're rarity. I haven't even made it to the intro portion of your video but as soon as I heard what you were describing I was like "oh yeah I remember these". Update: as soon as I press play after I was done commenting he mentioned Sprites and I had the biggest smile lol
One luminous phenomenon that really gets me is earthquake lightening. So strange. Imagine the whole earth being a piezo. Imagine harnessing that power !
The longest known continuous bolt of lightning as far as I am aware which we can confirm was 153 miles long. There is a photo of it from afar, and it knocked two radio towers out at the same time, and you can see this in the photo.. But how long did it travel before reaching the first tower, and how did it jump so far without grounding out.. it was wild stuff.
Actually Pecos Hank (his YT channel) actually captured this phenomenon about 2 yrs or so ago. Check out his channel...he has some absolutely incredible videos.
Awesome video, I love this kind of content. One other light effect you can see with red spites is called green ghosts. The only place I know of where you can see photo and video capture of them is Pecos Hank"s channel. Please make more things like this. Good stuff.
This has been on video/camera for well over a decade. There's a video where they flew a plane over a thunderstorm to catch it. I really hate the clickbait titles.
Hank Schyma, avid storm chaser, posted a video about sprites around 3 years ago in his channel Pecos Hank. It's a great video with a lot of footage and plenty of explanations. In the footage, he observed an uncommon greenish afterglow that occurs at the top of a sprite, just seconds after its dissipates. Apparently, that was the first ever footage caught of the phenomenon, and promptly called them "Green Ghosts". Very interesting stuff, and highly recommended video and channel for those meteorology geeks like myself.
Thanks Alex, your video are amazing and inspiring. Great sponsor too! Double edge razors are ironically the future of shaving! I don’t have a Henson but will consider buying one if they continue to support science video’s on UA-cam.
I was fortunate to see red sprites as part of a strong thunderstorm that I witnessed from the deck of a lake cabin in northeast Washington state several years ago. I couldn't believe my eyes and had nobody to confirm what I saw. I am a very aware and open minded person. I KNOW what I saw. It was marvelous!
When you began talking about ELVES, I thought that 'finally' I would learn the name of the phenomenon that I saw one night, in the middle of Norfolk, England nearly 20 years ago. However, even though the colour 'green' was right, the altitude was completely wrong - because this occurred right down to ground level. Not sure if you can track down newspaper reports on it, but it was certainly mentioned on radio news at the time. I have never heard any explanation for what occurred. Anyway, it was night-time, and I had almost closed the curtains over the patio windows when, looking out into the pitch black garden, it was suddenly lit up by what looked like an immense bright green fireball that came down from the sky to within a couple of feet of the ground, tendrils of flame reaching down to touch the ground. It vanished in an instant. There was no sound, no 'pressure' against the windows (as an explosion would), and - amazingly - my husband and son, who were sat in the back of the room watching TV saw nothing. I was really worried, thinking there had been some type of explosion somewhere. However, we heard no fuss from neighbours, no emergency vehicles, no special news reports on the TV, nothing whatsoever. Yet, on the radio next day, the news reported that Norfolk police stations received calls from other people across the county who also witnessed it, and fishermen out in the North Sea off the Norfolk coast also reported it. I have never seen this event reported in any scientific or even 'woo-woo/mystery/unexplained' type channels. Whatever happened that night seems to have been totally overlooked, and yet look on a map of England, and you will see that Norfolk is a considerable area.
You're speaking of another unexplained phenomena known as ball lightning. Unfortunately they happen so infrequently near human locations that we only have some shaky phone videos as "proof" of the phenomenon. Look up ball lightning to find out more about it.
how much reduction in strength has there been in the Earth's magnetic field since the Carrington event? perhaps we will be seeing more of this in the future.
Love these! love the mysteries nature brings, and the magic it can create ^_^ Jets are reversed sprites? I once saw green lighting through a telescope in space, still have no idea what it is, can't find it online, it's pretty frustrating, it was beautifull... unexplained to me though
I am a lighting observer without any equipment or HD cameras only my phone camera, Hearing about other events happens during thunderstorm has putten me through shock and a big smile, I must live at least one of those events
I'm loving the comments on this video, with some great suggestions for follow-up episodes. If you want more in a series around atmospheric phenomena, please like and share this one, and I'll definitely do more. Also, carrying on suggesting! I'm making a list of potential episode topics...
Did you get permission from the photographers and the people who filmed these clips or did you just steal this stuff?
I would love to see another video about lightning balls,STEVE and Anticrepuscular rays.
@@paulocezar8833 Then, seek out the content creators that this channel rips off. Support them, not this thief.
What about glowing orbs that rises from the ground?
Thanks for sharing, here I thought this (SPRITE) was the work of Cthulhu. I guess I can go back, safely to my slumber.
I remember hearing that high altitude aircraft pilots saw these frequently, but never reported them due to fear of them being hallucinations and getting labelled unfit to fly
I’ve never heard of elves until today 0.o
I think you're mixing up stories. Early astronauts saw flashes in their eyes because of cosmic rays (which are blocked by the atmosphere at low altitudes) but none of them mentioned it for a long time because the explanation of cosmic rays stimulating the optic nerve of individual astronauts wasn't obvious.
@@danieljensen2626 It also happens with cameras. Just put a filming camera inside your bag at an airport scanner and you'll be treated with static.
What if they where really hallucinating they have a lot of lifes depending on their well being to not report
Imagine them seeing an ufo they wouldn't talk to anyone about them.
When I lived in Hawaii .. during the summer at night we could look towards the horizon and see JUST the tops of huge thunder storms blowing far south of the island . When it was dark you could see the red sprites , it was so cool
Hope you took pictures
@@cajunlady4893 they are so faint it would have required super special camera. I recall many nights sitting on the beach , a little drunk with French fries watching them.
@@stankythecat6735 I'm jelly, sounds like it was amazing
@@jr2904 I hate the fact I moved to LA for work EVERYDAY !
OMG I REMEMBER YOUUUU
Having spent a lifetime working as an airline pilot I have seen many a spectacular light display. Thunderstorms are the only meteorological phenomena that actually scare me and are best avoided .
Some years back a South American airliner approaching New Zealand had a close encounter with a space rock entering the atmosphere. Those on board were not only treated to a spectacular flash of light but also heard and felt the sonic boom inside the airplane. Sure would be bad luck to be knocked out of the sky by a meteor.
A meteor hitting a plane out of the sky that’s more than bad luck, you had to have pissed off some divine entity at that point
What year was that? How far off N.Z were you? Hi from N.Z
@@notyetskeletal4809 Wasn’t my airplane, a Chilean airline I think. Maybe 10 years ago South East of Gisborne somewhere. In NZ airspace.
@@mitseraffej5812 OK. I saw one explode directly infront of a friend and I walking one night. Maybe 2015-17 north east of Auckland. Though it may be related. My friend was convinced it was car headlights. The boom came seconds after and he said he didn't hear anything. The next day it was in the news. Although we stood next to each other we had totally different recollections.
In Kansas (USA) many years ago, there was a lady actually struck IN HER HOUSE by a meteorite and LIVED... Had she not been covered in quilts and blankets at the time, she probably would have died... and there WAS scandal and controversy around the arguments about whether it was just someone screwing around with a cannon or something for a while, BUT the local university DID confirm it to be a REAL meteorite... broke through the roof of her house and hit her on the couch below...
SO it might have less chance than winning a lottery, but SOMEONE wins the lottery from time to time... remember that. ;o)
You may have just answered a question I've had for close to a decade. I remember seeing something that I would describe for years like "a bolt of lightning that moved like a drop of water" and it kind of looked like these blue jets/starters. Although this traveled downward instead of upward, but it's the closest thing I've ever seen to date so maybe that was it.
Or maybe ball lightning?
You've seen the rarest natural phenomenon on earth. Props to you.
@@mikester1290 Ball lightening is a continuous antimatter explosion
Plasmoid
Grew up in Denver, and the late afternoon thunderstorms would drift way out into the plains as the sun set so you could see over the tops of them by night time. Would often see flashes of lightning on the horizon. I may have seen sprites and just didn't know it as a kid. It was the perfect opportunity too. Probably too much city light really. Either way, awesome video explaining these hauntingly beautiful phenomena.
Retired pilot here... We were trying to tell folks about this phenomenon 30 years ago. But nobody believed us.
Did it come out the ground? Did it emit a flash as it propelled itself to space? It rain down particles and you were somewhere else for 20 minutes? Only the plants are luminous. This is what happened to me and others have similar from being in close proximity of the "natural phenomena".
I knew about all these atmospheric effects in the '90s in a program called "Raging Planet" that was on Discovery Channel. So, I'm pretty sure there was enough evidence back then.
@@FlameAlchemyIO You sound like you're on some of those luminous plants bro
@@Pr1zzm lol
@@Pr1zzm No I was the second to go to the underworld and come back lol
These acronyms like SPRITE and ELVES are really mythological. They seem to be other worldly when seen. The world we live on is amazing on so many levels.
Trueeee. Its amazing how much we still do not know about our own planet! It is incredibly beautiful.
Fun fact: you can see ELVES without scientific equipment, all you need is a 5-minute break and a hit of DMT.
@@JohnGardnerAlhadis better fact: Put DMT in a pill capsule and ingest it. Better DMT experience and much longer.
Just make sure you are in a positive state of mind and with people you are comfortable being yourself
@@JohnGardnerAlhadis you can also see sprite without scientific equipment, you just go to your local convenience store.
@@Vunomic even better fact: you need an MAOI to prevent you from metabolizing it
Seeing the sprites must be quite the experience, if you ever witness it during ancient times or the industrial age
It must have been how they got the inspiration for angels, demons or ancient leviathans like dragons. It's incredible.
@@writershard5065 I'm sure it's at least part of the inspiration for those mythical beings. There really wasn't a much better explanation at the time
i saw some when i was like 6 but i never knew what it was until i saw this video
They happen so quick the human eye at best might catch one image and the brain would barely register it hence needing cameras to even see them.
@@writershard5065 And today they come up with the modern variant of those things, UFOs :-)
I love going through these comments and seeing everyone's experiences. I saw sprites above a thunderstorm a couple years back and when I told my family everyone thought I was seeing things, good to know I'm not losing it and these are real phenomenons
I saw an ufo 80 years ago
Same
Yulieksi Gurriel?
Netflix has been doing a documentary on this for the last few years. It's about a place called the "upside down" and a lot of strange things happen happened with it back in the 80s.
good one mate.
Haha i said the same thing " thats vecna trying to open the gates to the upside down"
I remember seeing my first ‘blue jets’ as a child from an airliner at night. I kept seeing this spray of light shoot upwards immediately after lightning strikes. I’ve seen them dozens of times since, I’m always looking for them. They don’t always occur. Internet didn’t exist then, but I remember that what little research I could find, scientists said they were ‘ unproven.’ And even this video says “recently discovered,” which is kinda funny because pilots have reported them since they first took to the skies. And I’m sure ancient peoples witnessed them as well when conditions were just right. Fascinating stuff.
A common theme is scientist think pilots are fools and rarely take them seriously. Rogue waves got a similar treatment, with albeit much more deadly consequences
Eye witness reports can’t often be submitted as “proof” of something. I guess when they mean “recently” discovered is that they have gotten picture/video evidence from reliable sources as to the existence of these phenomena.
😯
@RCBones couldn’t tell ya, my only guess is that they had gotten sufficient evidence to be able to describe these phenomena in a way that makes since according to our knowledge of science.
its because people are so defensive against new ideas, absolutely stupid. should always listen to what someone has to say once without immediately dismissing them
There's also the newly discovered (I believe) "green ghosts" that happen along side red sprites. There's a great video by Pecos Hank on UA-cam showing the phenomenon.
Pecos Hank was my first thought when I saw this, I'm sure Astrum has come across his content 🌪️
Not exactly alongside, since it is all connected, but higher in the atmosphere. Ghosts have been documented in images further back, but were not noticed until 2019 by “Pecos Hank” Schyma and Paul M. Smith. The hypothesis is that ghosts are extremely high extensions of sprites, exciting oxygen in the lowest levels of the atmosphere where aurora occur (which is still way the heck up there), hence the green color. This hypothesis is unconfirmed, however, and would make an interesting doctoral dissertation. Somebody younger than me go for it!
Pecos Hank makes some awesome videos, so cool he ended up discovering the green Ghosts.
Awesome! You beat me to it. I was going to mention Hank's work on lighting, as well.
✌️😎
green ghosts are just elves described in this video, they are blue but sometimes green
Pecos Hank, my fav storm chaser, has been discussing this phenomenon for a few years now. He's got some great vids on his channel if anyone is interested in further research.
Was scrolling down to see if anyone mentioned Hank's work. :-D
Only clicked to share his channel since he's been documenting these for years
Was literally going to post the same thing haha.
I love Pecos Hanks channel ❤️
Pecos Hank brought these phenomenon to my attention a few years ago.
blue jets, sprite, blue starter, gigantic jets, elves... sound like a futuristic Christmas themed story where the elves and a sprite fought or something.
The Elves' gigantic jet destroyed the lone sprite in the blue jet
I loved this collab Astrum! Thanks for the opportunity- 😂
You missed a recent thing that's being looked into called "GHOSTS" - Green emissions from excited Oxygen in Sprite Tops. Where a quick flash of green is observed above Red Sprites that looks a little bit like an aurora.
See Pecos Hank ✌️😎🌌🍀
@@erinmac4750 He did discover them after all
I was just about to say, Pecos Hank is the man!
@@erinmac4750 I came to this video thinking "If Astrum doesn't mention Pecos Hank, we riot"
@@BigTylt bout to flip my computer desk 😤😤😤😤😤
I've always spent hours watching the sky here in Maine, ever since I was a little kid. One of the most interesting things I've seen was a rapid pulse of vivid blue light late at night out of a mostly clear sky, it was very high up in the sky. It wasn't like a glow of daylight, it was tightly isolated. But the best part was immediately afterwards, where a very clear bright blue ring shot downwards from the epicenter, like a smoke ring of burning propane. A toroidal vortex of blue light. It was so beautiful and unique that my heart started beating pretty hard, it really surprised me! The whole event was over in a flash, probably less than a second. If I hadn't of been staring directly at the spot already, I'd of never seen it or thought it was just my eyes playing tricks on me.
Soo cool
What was that phenomenon ?
@@voyaging4 I genuinely have no idea, I'll never forget it though. The closest thing I've ever heard is the elves phenomenon. Somebody else mentioned to me it might've been a small meteor exploding under just the right conditions as well.
@@cutie1427 Glad to share the memory, Nice .pfp btw, never enough skulls for the skull throne brother. 👍
Check out dry or heat lightening, I think happens in locally clear shy.
Pecos Hank has a few really good videos on Transient Luminous Events as well as lightning in general. Of course, he also has amazing storm chasing footage as well
And he explains it so well, anyone can understand it.
I love that man! The footage he uploads is incredible. He's insane and/or brave.
Came here to say the same. dude is an absolute legend.
The green ghosts.
Very true, this man has a loth of good footage and information. Next to that he's a funny, lovely and smart person.
Lightning is one of the things I'm most fascinated with. The beauty and power that come with it, speed and strength of nature. There is nothing quite like it.
Imagine chilling outside watching the storms when you see the Mind Flayer for a split second and you're just left like "yo"
I HIGHLY recommend you check out the Pecos Hank channel by Hank Schyma. He is a storm chaser based out of the US who has produced some of the most detailed images of transient luminous events I've ever seen. Actually just in general, his meteorology content is incredible. I would 20/10 check his channel out.
Just looked him up after reading and watched his green ghost vid with all the red sprites and subbed right away. Awesome stuff, thanks for the recommendation!
So those who check his channel out are far sighted?
I wish Atrium had linked to him :( thanks for all the comments that recommended him though, I hope he gets more attention!
Pecos Hank rocks!
thanks for telling us he’s based out of the usa i would have never guessed. 😂
Interesting. I never knew about these. I have experienced an extended sheet lighting show ( horizontal instead of vertical ) that occurred at night in an almost cloudless sky. We lay on the beach looking up as the lightning flashed back and forth across the sky seemingly between the stars. It was totally surreal! Photos of the event made the newspapers the next day.
Wenatchee Washington used to have sheet lightning constantly when I was a kid. It was magnificent and beautiful. We seem to barely have any thunderstorms here nowadays. 🤨🤔☹️
@@lindakay9552 This was in Cairns, Australia maybe 40 years ago. I’ve never seen anything like it since. Not sure if it was a tropical phenomenon. I’ve seen sheet lightning but the almost totally cloudless nature of it at night was spectacular.
@@lindakay9552 wow I'm so jealous, in the UK we get plenty of rain and some thunder storms but they're never that dramatic, I think because we don't have the right geography for them
@@robinhodgkinson I've seen some amazing lightning shows in my time but that sounds damned spectacular. Lucky!!
Lightning is actually usually extended more in the horizontal direction than the vertical, you just can't see it well because it's in the clouds. Lightning consistently extending horizontally out of clouds is pretty rare though.
Pecos Hank, a storm chaser from Texas, has phenomenal footage of these he took himself, on his UA-cam channel.
Just recently there was a news about a gigantic jet blue lightning that shot straight up in space a few days ago.
So i just had to look it up and found this video. Learned something new, thanks.
and now they're wreaking havoc on the YGO TCG meta! damn sprights!
The way patterns show up in all forms of nature is really mind boggling. Those sprites look just like a root structure. They generate the same structure in way less than a second.
Roots of a spirit tree? 🤔
Or blood vessels, or nerves. Everything experiences time differently. We know very little as humans and we know a whole bunch of information. You know there's just so much more though.
I remember during the super storm Odette here in Cebu Philippines when everytime before the strong whooshing wind hits, a bright green light illuminates the sky in about five seconds. It happened many times during the typhoon's landfall in our city.
I've never seen such magnificent and scary phenomenon.
Did that actually happen?
It might have been electrical transformers catching on fire and exploding. They are filled with oil and when struck by lightning the copper vaporizes in a green color.
@@nate0___ yes it did happen. And I did some googling and found out that it's a natural occuring phenomenon during super typhoons.
@@richardyarbrough5437 I would've thought it's an electrical transformer, too. But it didn't happen once. It happened all throughout when the typhoon made a landfall. I lost count how many times the green lights flashed across the city sky. But all of us witnesses can say it happened probably more than ten times. It started at around 4pm in my city and the green lights stopped at around 6pm.
Is that why I saw a green looking ufo after a rainstorm..? Nobody believed me. And I was a kid at the time. But I know I saw it
A rather beautiful episode. I've a PhD in designing lightning waveform generators for aeronautical applications. That was long-winded and practical. I prefer this video :)
Probably my favorite science channel. Keep it up Astrum
You know, that ad for Henson shaving at the beginning really adds a lot of class, gravitas and cache to your UA-cam site.
Airline pilots like myself have been seeing these things for decades, but many people did not believe us. This is a great video.
If this sort of elusive effects are produced by Earth's clouds and atmosphere, can you even imagine what kind of spectacular phenomenons are going on inside gas giants, that we could possibly discover in future.
You know, Saturn does have diamond rains
Neptune and Uranus may have the same properties as a super fluid which electricity flows without stopping. They just haven’t gotten close enough to observe this because of how distant they are.
Oh the storms there are probably amazing.
Been fascinated with Red Ghosts since Pecos Hank did a video of them over a year ago, great to see someone else covering them now!
This is really cool. I play Yugioh and Konami made an entire deck based on Sprites. They monsters even share the names of the different colors and are Thunder monsters.
as a warhammer 40k lore expert i assure you those are warp anomalies caused by warp deamons trying to break into material realm!
And that was one of the coolest things I’ve seen in a while. You’ve totally earned your entire 1 million followers with such fantastic content. Congratulations.
Photos of sprites have been taken for years. The channel Pecos Hank has been making videos about these for quite some time. His tornado and wild weather videos are awesome!
The weirdest lightning I’ve seen was ball lighting shooting across the sky whilst watching “Alien” at the drive-in theatre. That added an extra dimension of creepiness.
I think it would have been more fitting if you were watching predator but it’s cool anyways
Imagine you're new to a country or new to this planet and you get lucky enough to see this your first day. You'd be freaked out
I like how the acronyms are a couple of letters caught in basically a sentence that make up the acronym. Like some scientist REALLY wanted to name them elves and sprites.
This was an unexpected. With so many awesome things to learn about the cosmos, there's still so much to learn about our home planet. I've always love watching lightening storms as a kid but these things are crazy! Always amazing videos.
"Pecos Hank" youtuber discovered "Green ghosts" in 2019. Check out his vid "NIGHT OF THE GREEN GHOSTS" published Jul 25, 2021. Nice compliment to this Astrum video.
I will never forget seeing and hearing ball lightning. I was maybe 100m away, it was a massive "light ball", I estimate 50m in diameter (probably more) when it "struck"/"went off". It was above ground maybe 200m high. the bang was intense, short and very loud. So loud I couldn't believe the windows in the area I lived didn't shatter. very impressive/scary.
That ain't no lightning that's the Firmament tearing up the boundaries
The way you led into the ad... I applaud you lmao that was so smooth
I've lived here in AZ. in and out for most of my life, and I'm 58. I love sitting on the porch watching the Thunderheads massing on the horizon, and the Amazingly Beautiful light shows they put on, rapid series of lightning flashes all throughout the clouds. Lighting them from the inside, from internal lightning flashes. From top to bottom, just everywhere. And the occasional Red Sprite, or even a VERY rare Jet, lancing up out the top. I just sit in a wonderful, magical, spell-binding Amazement, of the Natural Beauty. I sit for hours at a time usually, and it only feels like its been a few min, just enjoying Mother Natures light shows. Its better and more relaxing than a Movie or T.V. all my oohs and ahhs, and wows, all in a quiet setting where I am, miles from the Epicenter. Its better than Meditation, IMHO.
I bet!!! One day I hope to travel to AZ during monsoon season to storm chase. 💚🌎
I've been in to lightning for decades, and I had no idea of these particular variations. Pretty incredible. I want to know more about the Elve(s). Really trippy.
6:25 I’m no scientist but I don’t believe that’s how acronyms work
These are omens of the apocalypse.
Thanks Alex for astronomy and weather etc so interesting and accessible. About forty five years ago I saw ball lightening relatively up close (close enough for me). I have always said it looked like some sort of plasma. It was an odd looking ball about the size of a soccer ball, that 'bounced' a couple of feet from the ground. I still remember it like it was yesterday. If you haven't covered it, maybe it's worth covering?
I'd love to experience that! At the very least I'd enjoy a video discussing ball lightning.
My grandpa once told me he saw ball lightning when he was young, that a bluish sparkly ball flew through the house he lived in with his parents, and after some zig-zagging in front of the house it flew away and crashed into a nearby river.
Yup thats how we experienced them too. Came thru the glass and left thru the opposite wall!
Strange that this phenomen only exists in mouth to mouth history and not on tape...
@@TobiasDettinger there exist a few short video clips on UA-cam that may be this- no verification that I know of, but some attempts at debunking by video experts.
Great video, there's also a mysterious ground effect lightning known as "ball lightning", also near impossible to find footage for but hopefully that also comes soon
i am pretty sure that was made up by a science fiction author a long time ago
@@Fish-cj4ub They have been reported way before the science fiction genre got invented. But there are probably many different phenomena (including hallucinations) lumped together under the umbrella term "ball lightning". It's not easy to prove the existence of THE ball lightning, when A ball lightning can be a wide variety of different things.
@@Fish-cj4ub If i saw it with my own eyes, i know it's not made up.
When I was stationed in Iceland I got to see the Northern Lights. Absolutely beautiful.
Presently I live in the mountains of Western NC at just under 5000 feet. Thunder storms are a lot closer to us than at lower altitudes. BTW, yes, our power system has been hit.
One time in my home it was very cloudy but did not rain and I saw pink lightnings in the sky, it kept on appearing but it did not have any loud sounds, made me feel like I’m in a stranger things episode
How have I not found this channel till now! Fascinating content. Thanks
I've seen ball lightning, and less related, fire rainbows, but nothing on this list. Incredible stuff!
Fascinating. Thanks for this. As other viewers have mentioned, these phenomena do seem to evoke mythological or folk tales. Could people in the distant past have witnessed such phenomena in the skies of antiquity, free from city lights and pollution, and have incorporated them in their mythologies? It would also be interesting to do a video focusing on atmospheric phenomena on planets and moons in our own solar system! Thanks again. Great presentation, as always.
I was thinking of Pecos Hank the entire video. He has some amazing captures of sprites on his channel.
I've never seen sprites but I have seen one blue jet, which emerged from a very active distant storm cloud that was producing some pretty spectacular lightning from my vantage point. The jet was bright enough for me to see it in the early evening summer daylight, and the sun apparently drowned out the color as it appeared pale-white, but it was an extremely narrow cone of light that shot straight upward from the top of the storm cloud. The flash was so quick that I probably could've blinked and missed five of them.
this is actually one of the first off-topic vids that i have watched without seeing and/or realising the time! real great shiz right here bro, kudos to everyone in the process of making this one 😙
That’s some beautiful imagery. Thanks for uploading 👍
I really appreciate you as a creator. Keep doing what you're doing
I've been fascinated by the phenomenon ever since I first found out about it, some years ago. I read that pilots had known about them for ages, but hadn't been believed when they'd reported them. [bit like reporting UFOs!]
It's a whole new field: not only the how and why of the phenomena themselves, but how they interact with the atmosphere, maybe regulating or stabilising it in some way.
And this has been going on for probably billions of years!
Please can we have more or the same, or similar.
This is so freaking cool to watch. These phenomena are visible to naked eye, although it happens in a matter of milliseconds, you can still visibly see it. Now I am curious if there are other cool phenomenas that are not visible with our naked eye that occurs almost all the time without us knowing.
Awesome footage. ... And great description, told. 👍
When I was 13, I was on a flight to Atlanta. We flew past a thunderstorm, and out the window, I briefly saw a gap between two layers of clouds.
There was what I called "purple lightning", flittering between the layers. Now I think they might have been these blue jets.
Seems like palpatine was having fun
@@TheUmdexMan UNLIMITED POWER!!!
Ok, so it’s been a while since I’ve seen some original scientific concept, and this absolutely blew my mind. What an amazing video, and thank you for introducing me to the deeper mysteries of our atmosphere.
Great video Alex! I would love to see more about strange weather. I have been a weather buff all my life. Even have a weather station on the internet.
Pecos Hank also has a great video covering this. It’s a few years older than this.
This was amazing!
Keep the great content up Astrum!
The Sprite was magnificent 🥲 !
Yes, we want more videos of WAP!
Weird
Atmospheric
Phenomenon
Ayyyy, Whoa! 🤌
One time, observing a distant storm in Brazil, I saw numerous blue jets happening above the anvil. That's the only time I've ever seen those. Never saw sprites.
For more film of sprites, elves and some spectacular storms of all kinds, check out Pecos Hank's channel. He's a storm chaser with decades of experience and works with meteorologists to understand the causes of destructive tornados.
The upside down is making its way into our realm
Aliens playing with LED strips the same way teens on tiktok do to their ceilings
One of my favorite creators, Pecos Hank, is a storm chaser, photographer, and musician. He's got videos about TLEs and photos he's taken of them. I was half expecting to see his name credited with some of these photos. i learned a lot about them from this video. I enjoy taking photos of the night sky. I am hoping I can get some pictures like this one day. If you want to see more of these, Pecos Hank's channel is amazing.
A whole lot of the photos used in this video were actually taken by him and Paul Smith, they just weren't credited :(
I remember seeing the scientific video about this and they called them sprites like the mythical fairies because they're rarity. I haven't even made it to the intro portion of your video but as soon as I heard what you were describing I was like "oh yeah I remember these".
Update: as soon as I press play after I was done commenting he mentioned Sprites and I had the biggest smile lol
One luminous phenomenon that really gets me is earthquake lightening. So strange. Imagine the whole earth being a piezo. Imagine harnessing that power !
Wow, I have to look that up!
How about lightning formed by a volcano erupting?
“If rain are clouds crying, then whats snow?”
The longest known continuous bolt of lightning as far as I am aware which we can confirm was 153 miles long. There is a photo of it from afar, and it knocked two radio towers out at the same time, and you can see this in the photo.. But how long did it travel before reaching the first tower, and how did it jump so far without grounding out.. it was wild stuff.
Actually Pecos Hank (his YT channel) actually captured this phenomenon about 2 yrs or so ago. Check out his channel...he has some absolutely incredible videos.
Awesome video, I love this kind of content. One other light effect you can see with red spites is called green ghosts. The only place I know of where you can see photo and video capture of them is Pecos Hank"s channel. Please make more things like this. Good stuff.
Another Pecos Hank fan here. Highly recommend his videos, as well. ✌️😎🌌🌪️🌎💚
Massive video and massive guy Hank is
This has been on video/camera for well over a decade. There's a video where they flew a plane over a thunderstorm to catch it. I really hate the clickbait titles.
Hank Schyma, avid storm chaser, posted a video about sprites around 3 years ago in his channel Pecos Hank. It's a great video with a lot of footage and plenty of explanations.
In the footage, he observed an uncommon greenish afterglow that occurs at the top of a sprite, just seconds after its dissipates. Apparently, that was the first ever footage caught of the phenomenon, and promptly called them "Green Ghosts". Very interesting stuff, and highly recommended video and channel for those meteorology geeks like myself.
They’re also a very good rank 2 engine
We need more coverage on this kind of phenomena!
Not enough is known or said about these magnificent things
Thanks Alex, your video are amazing and inspiring.
Great sponsor too! Double edge razors are ironically the future of shaving! I don’t have a Henson but will consider buying one if they continue to support science video’s on UA-cam.
If you like this sort of imagery the channel Pecos hank also has some videos on transient luminous events, lightning etc
Glad you mentioned Pecos Hank. Standup guy and really amazing vids
So awesome
So many things we will see that was never seen... as the days progress
I'm subbed to him myself and I immediately thought of his videos on this.
I love finding other PH fans
Jeeze, everything in Evangelion turns out to be real! XD
I was fortunate to see red sprites as part of a strong thunderstorm that I witnessed from the deck of a lake cabin in northeast Washington state several years ago. I couldn't believe my eyes and had nobody to confirm what I saw. I am a very aware and open minded person. I KNOW what I saw. It was marvelous!
awesome footage and explainations, alex! thanks for this video!
When you began talking about ELVES, I thought that 'finally' I would learn the name of the phenomenon that I saw one night, in the middle of Norfolk, England nearly 20 years ago.
However, even though the colour 'green' was right, the altitude was completely wrong - because this occurred right down to ground level.
Not sure if you can track down newspaper reports on it, but it was certainly mentioned on radio news at the time. I have never heard any explanation for what occurred.
Anyway, it was night-time, and I had almost closed the curtains over the patio windows when, looking out into the pitch black garden, it was suddenly lit up by what looked like an immense bright green fireball that came down from the sky to within a couple of feet of the ground, tendrils of flame reaching down to touch the ground. It vanished in an instant.
There was no sound, no 'pressure' against the windows (as an explosion would), and - amazingly - my husband and son, who were sat in the back of the room watching TV saw nothing.
I was really worried, thinking there had been some type of explosion somewhere. However, we heard no fuss from neighbours, no emergency vehicles, no special news reports on the TV, nothing whatsoever.
Yet, on the radio next day, the news reported that Norfolk police stations received calls from other people across the county who also witnessed it, and fishermen out in the North Sea off the Norfolk coast also reported it.
I have never seen this event reported in any scientific or even 'woo-woo/mystery/unexplained' type channels. Whatever happened that night seems to have been totally overlooked, and yet look on a map of England, and you will see that Norfolk is a considerable area.
You're speaking of another unexplained phenomena known as ball lightning.
Unfortunately they happen so infrequently near human locations that we only have some shaky phone videos as "proof" of the phenomenon.
Look up ball lightning to find out more about it.
1:23 stranger things irl
Facts
how much reduction in strength has there been in the Earth's magnetic field since the Carrington event? perhaps we will be seeing more of this in the future.
I just can't thank you enough, the world building potential and inspiration you just gave me is unparalleled, instant sub.
I'm always looking at the sky. It's so beautiful and ever changing
this that stuff from the upside down bro
Love these! love the mysteries nature brings, and the magic it can create ^_^
Jets are reversed sprites?
I once saw green lighting through a telescope in space, still have no idea what it is, can't find it online, it's pretty frustrating, it was beautifull... unexplained to me though
1:35
Geez that's Vecna
I am a lighting observer without any equipment or HD cameras only my phone camera, Hearing about other events happens during thunderstorm has putten me through shock and a big smile, I must live at least one of those events
That's Eren coming in with the Rumbling