Weird Lightning: Sprites, Elves and Other Strange Things Found in Our Atmosphere

Abstract:  From the speaker: "Lightning strikes our planet about a billion times per year, killing as many people as hurricanes or tornadoes. Surprisingly, despite its familiarity, we still don't understand many things about lightning, including how it gets started inside thunderstorms and how it travels such large distances through air. In addition, many new and strange phenomena have been discovered in and around thunderstorms, including colossal jellyfish-like structures near the edge of space called sprites, enormous, expanding rings of light called elves, bizarre, bluish jets shooting out of cloud tops, powerful flashes of gamma rays emanating from deep inside storms, and large but nearly-invisible discharges called dark lightning. In this presentation, I will talk about the mysteries of lightning and other weird things that lightning does."