Weather of Arabia - Astronauts on board the International Space Station (ISS) enjoy wonderful views of the planet Earth from their location, and sometimes discover strange things, including what was recently observed from a flash of blue light over Europe, so what is this flash?
French astronaut Thomas Pesquet recently spotted this glowing flash and posted the photo on Twitter, explaining this strange phenomenon seen over Europe.
According to Pesquet, what was observed is called a "transient luminous event" in the upper atmosphere, and it is a "very rare event".
This phenomenon occurs when there is lightning in the upper atmosphere that occurs at higher altitudes than it normally does, Pesquet says.
"This is a very rare event and we have a facility outside the Columbus lab in Europe dedicated to observing these flashes of light," Pesquet wrote on Flickr's photo website.
"What is surprising about this lightning is that only a few decades ago it was spotted by pilots, but scientists were not convinced that it actually exists," the astronaut noted. "After a few years, we could be sure that it was real and could affect our climate," Pesquet added.
It is reported that one of the benefits of having astronauts on the International Space Station is the ability to study atmospheric events that cannot be observed and studied from Earth, and these events (sometimes called fantasy names such as sprites) affect our climate, so it is important to monitor and study them.
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