Photographer Florian Riou captures rare red sprites off Spanish coast
World
Photographer Florian Riou managed to snap some seriously rare red sprites (huge, glowing pillars of red light) during thunderstorms off the coast of Spain.
These flashes were spotted from Corsica and are so high up they actually form above the clouds, not between the clouds and the ground like ordinary lightning.
Sprites form 50-90km above storms
Red sprites are super quick bursts of electricity that appear 50 to 90km above storms.
They happen when lightning below creates an electric field strong enough to excite gasses in the upper atmosphere, making them glow bright red for only a few milliseconds.
Catching them on camera is tough, but Riou pulled it off thanks to careful planning and predicting thunderstorm activity off the coast of Spain.