A rare form of lightning called ‘red sprites’ (only confirmed 30 years ago) observed earlier this month at Kununurra in Western Australia. To wit:

100-meter balls of ionized air shoot down from about 80-km high at 10 percent the speed of light and are quickly followed by a group of upward streaking ionized balls. Red sprites take only a fraction of a second to occur and are best seen when powerful thunderstorms are visible from the side.

(Pic: Ben Broady)

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