Sprites - Electrodynamic coupling between the atmosphere and the ionosphere

你曾经在雷雨中看到过闪电吗？既壮观又恐怖，对吧？现在，你为什么不在晚上看雷雨呢？你会惊讶于你所看到的：运气好的话，你将能够看到闪电从雷雨云的顶部到达地球大气层100公里的高度。但是这些闪电，被称为精灵，是相当红色和蓝色的，因为它们发生在大气的不同部分。精灵在这个星球上多久出现一次？精灵出现在哪里？精灵有多强大？为了回答这些简单的问题，我们可以用它们的无线电信号捕捉到精灵。是的，精灵类似于广播电台和电视台，它们将不可见的电波传送到我们的家中。有了非常灵敏的无线电天线，我们可以在很远的地方探测到精灵。在国外一些国家放置一些无线电天线，就有可能探测到世界各地的精灵。一旦我们知道了全球精灵数量，我们就有可能更详细地了解精灵的不寻常属性。例如，精灵可能会产生x射线。是的，就是医学上用来透视你身体的x光。但还没有人检测到精灵发出的x射线。太阳在100千米的高空加热大气，在那里精灵结束了。会不会是不断变化的太阳影响了全球精灵的数量？或者精灵是全球气候变化的指示器？如果你想自己寻找精灵，没问题：问问物理老师就行了。地球上的许多人现在开始在屋顶上安装摄像机，以监视夜间的精灵。他们在视频图像上运行计算机软件，自动检测精灵并向研究人员报告，这真的是一件很酷的事情。

Lightning to heaven: Sprites Did you ever watch lightning in thunderstorms ? Spectacular and scary at the same time, right ? Now, why don't you watch above thunderstorms at night ? You'll be surprised what you get to see: With a little bit of luck, you will be able to see lightning which goes from the top of the thundercloud up to 100 km height in the Earth's atmosphere. But these lightning flashes, denoted sprites, are rather red and bluish, because they are happening in a different part of the atmosphere. How often do sprites happen on this planet ? Where do sprites occur ? How strong are sprites ? To answer these simple questions, we can catch sprites with their radio signals. Yes, sprites are similar to radio broadcasting and TV stations, which transmit invisible waves to our homes. With very sensitive radio antennas, we can detect sprites over very long distances. Putting a number of radio antennas in some foreign countries, it is possible to detect sprites all around the world. Once we know the global sprite population, it will be possible to look in great detail at the very unusual properties of sprites. For example, sprites may be able to produce X-rays. Yes, the same X-rays which are used in medicine to look through your body. But nobody ever detected X-rays from sprites yet. The sun heats the atmosphere at 100 km height, where sprites do end. Can it be that the ever changing sun affects the global sprite population ? Or are sprites an indicator of global climate change ? If you want to search for sprites yourself, no problem: just ask a physics teacher. Many people around the planet are now starting to mount video cameras on the roofs to watch out for sprites during the night. They run computer software across the video images to detect sprites automatically and report to researchers, which is really a cool thing to do.