Sprites keep occupying central Europe

Photo credit & info: Anna Odzimek (IGF PAN) and Magdalena Mielniczek

With large thunderstorm systems sweeping across central Europe every week or so, this summer season proves to be very successful for sky and TLE observers in central Europe. Numerous events have been observed from the Czech Republic and Hungary. Polish Fireball Network have reported observing sprites in large number compared to the last three years (after their first observation in 2009). In addition, I also heard from an eyewitness who had seen something like a sprite from a hill above a thunderstorm occurring in central Poland, on one evening this August.

Recently, a camera installed in Gliwice, Poland, recorded a couple of events produced by a thunderstorm system over Germany and the Czech Republic on 11 September 2011 (see photo).

Meanwhile, PFN recorded sprites over another thunderstorm that had developed that night and passed across the north-west of Poland.

TLE observations from the Czech Republic

An enthusiastic observer, Martin Popek has captured numerous TLEs: sprites and even an ELVES in Central Europe from the Czech Republic in the Summer season of 2011. The interest in TLEs and his persistence brought the success for Martin in this year. He uses a proven setup to record the events: a Watec902h2 Ultimate camera + Computar 8mm F1.3 lens and the UFO Capture program. He has published an overview about TLEs in Czech and recently one of his images appeared in the news of SpaceWeather.com. He use to report about the events he captures on the web. Below are some nice examples of his records:

A bunch of sprites (26/05/2011)

 

A lonely wanderer in false colors (07/06/2011)

A large jellyfish sprite event in false colors (27/08/2011)

Italian summer getting its sprites

Thunderstorm season in Europe seems to be in full swing and the Italian IMTN observers do not waste their time. Have a look at their sprite images recorded at the start of this month.

Spectacular Sprite images from above Hungary by a color digital camera

An amateur astronomer has captured several sprites above a thunderstorm over Hungary on the night of 23. June, 2011. The beauty of these images hides in that there was also a closer active storm cell in the field of view, so some of the photos show nice lightning-illuminated clouds together with the bright red sprites. The images are courtesy of the photographer, Zoltán Goda. Enjoy!