‘Lightning into Space - Sprites’

Guest Speaker

Thursday, 12th May 2022 (19:45 - 22:00)

Venue: Virtual Meeting

The public media has been captivated by the recent finding of lightning in space and short illuminations above thunderclouds. Sprites, enormous jets, elves, halos, and blue jets are all names for these illuminations. Sprites, for example, are reddish illuminations of the Earth's atmosphere that reach a height of 40-80 km and a width of up to 50 km. Sprites are observed above the world's greatest thunderstorms, and they are mostly caused by super-strong lightning strikes on the earth. Sprites have recently been the subject of studies on their influence on the Earth's atmosphere, particularly the possibility of being linked to natural particle accelerators above our heads. On the International Space Station, a sophisticated camera was recently placed to investigate the secrets of lightning. These unexpected events show that the area above thunderstorms is one of the Earth's atmosphere's lesser-known "terra incognita."

Speaker: Dr. Martin Fullekrug

Dr. Martin Fullekrug is a University of Bath Research Professor (Reader).

His primary research focus is on the Earth's electromagnetic environment, which includes the atmosphere, near-Earth space, and solar-terrestrial physics, with an emphasis on applications such as lightning discharges, space weather, and communications.

Dr. Fullekrug has written two books, served as guest editor on several special journal issues, and has several papers in the worldwide scientific literature. He is a founding member of the CTR Wilson Institute for Atmospheric Electricity and is on the editorial boards of 'Surveys in Geophysics' and 'Frontiers in Earth Science.'