TOKYO - A mysterious red light stretching vertically across the night sky over Kanagawa Prefecture has been identified as a rare "sprite," a brief luminous phenomenon that occurs high above thunderclouds at roughly the same time as powerful lightning strikes.
Images of the unusual glow have drawn attention on social media, where users compared its shape to a giant red jellyfish and even figures taking part in a ritual, while others remarked that such a sight might have inspired mythology in earlier times.
The phenomenon was photographed at 9:47 p.m. on July 26 in Hiratsuka, Kanagawa Prefecture, on a night when intense localized thunderstorms struck parts of the Kanto region.
Daichi Fujii, an astronomy curator at the Hiratsuka City Museum, said the light was a sprite, a phenomenon associated with intense lightning that produces a reddish flash extending upward toward space.
Sprites occur far above thunderclouds almost simultaneously with strong lightning strikes and remain visible for only an instant, making them relatively rare to observe.
Fujii said skies over Hiratsuka itself were clear at the time, but he noticed flashes of lightning in the distance and pointed his camera toward them, allowing him to capture the sprite.
Source: FNN
