Darkness Aboard The ISS - Something Strange

I have recorded a few hours of some strange things going on around the ISS once the lights have been turned off. Thought you guys might want to see this, it's pretty darn cool. Not sure what it is, but it is strange. It starts a little slow but that's because I wanted to show exactly when this starts. I highly recommend that you watch it from start to finish, including the last ten seconds. This is hours of footage that I have broken down into 15 mins. Enjoy, and I would love to hear thoughts about what this might be.

I believe thats lighting luminating in the cloud cover.

And lights from cities below.

Looks like sprites, high atmosphere electrical effects like brief auroras and lightning.

We normally can't see them because they happen so far above the clouds.

They have been photographed from high altitude balloons, planes & space.

reply to post by Bob Down Under


Yeah, that was my first thought as well. Lighting from the clouds on Earth... It's coming from Earth what ever it is... You can see the clouds a bit before the lights go out.

Very cool either way.

Click here for more information.

Originally posted by siren8
Well, considerring you broke down several hours worth of vidoe into 15 minuts that means it flashes by to quick for anyone to know whats going on.

COngratualtions on wasting hours of your life creating a totally useless space video.

What? He edited out several hours worth of footage and left about 15 minutes.... He didn't speed it up or slow it down or something.

What are you talking about? What makes you think the flashes cannot be seen? We are looking at a real time video....Nothing sped up or slowed down to alter how long the flash appears....

I must not be understanding you.

reply to post by siren8


The mods will be along shortly but, only to ignore you.

Originally posted by Bob Down Under
I believe thats lighting luminating in the cloud cover.

And lights from cities below.

This was my first thought, the only problem is that alot of the flashes occur right in front of the ISS which is at the bottom of the screen. But again, I'm not sure.

Cool video! Thanks for sharing! Most of this is explainable, but beatiful non the less. I would have to watch hours, upon hours, upon hours, of this to fully interpret everything that is going on but a fun journey would certainly be had.

Originally posted by RealTruthSeeker

Originally posted by Bob Down Under
I believe thats lighting luminating in the cloud cover.

And lights from cities below.

This was my first thought, the only problem is that alot of the flashes occur right in front of the ISS which is at the bottom of the screen. But again, I'm not sure.

I am just picking out the natural phenomenon first of what those lights could be, the lower lights near the ISS could be on the earths horizon.

reply to post by siren8

I wouldn't say its useless. It shows various natural phenomena that we cannot see from the ground. If all of your posts are of this variety I'm sure that the mods won't be ignoring you for long.

I took the OP's suggestion and watched the last seconds or so and enjoyed it. Sorry some of you wasted your fifteen minutes of basically nothing.

Originally posted by siren8
Well, considerring you broke down several hours worth of vidoe into 15 minuts that means it flashes by to quick for anyone to know whats going on.

COngratualtions on wasting hours of your life creating a totally useless space video.

I haven't watched that video yet, because I just opened that thread, but I don't need to watch it to know, that your comment is not just rude, but even more useless.

I don't know how many hours of my precious time I've wasted with reading posts like yours that turned out being absolutely dispensable.

Sorry for the OT, but some things have to be said.

Back to topic: Even if it were just sprites, I'd like to see some, because I've never seen one of those mythical aerial pheonomena so many pilots were talking about in awe.

Originally posted by Peloquin

Originally posted by siren8
Well, considerring you broke down several hours worth of vidoe into 15 minuts that means it flashes by to quick for anyone to know whats going on.

COngratualtions on wasting hours of your life creating a totally useless space video.

I haven't watched that video yet, because I just opened that thread, but I don't need to watch it to know, that your comment is not just rude, but even more useless.

I don't know how many hours of my precious time I've wasted with reading posts like yours that turned out being absolutely dispensable.

Sorry for the OT, but some things have to be said.

Back to topic: Even if it were just sprites, I'd like to see some, because I've never seen one of those mythical aerial pheonomena so many pilots were talking about in awe.

As somebody who's used rude comments on occasion as a teaching aid, I agree completely that rudeness here is inappropriate.

Kudos to the OP for watching the live TV downlink and sharing. More people should do that.

It would help us all become more familliar with what is normal in space, so we can better filter out the potentially abnormnal.

And as I've written often before, watching for abnormal sights can be a clue, at the very least, to vehicle malfunction and to threats to the crew.

And someday it may be a clue to something very, very different -- and important.

So keep the eyes and mind open, see and share, and dismiss the ignorant rudeness.

BTW: Peloquin, can you cite some links where pilots talk about their sightings of sprites? I've tried and can't find any direct quotations, but I don't doubt there are some. Please help.

I mention sprites, and shuttle observations of them, as one of the surprise benefits of shuttle missions, in an essay for USA Today to appear next week -- will provide link when there is one.

I have never heard of this sprite thing, but after further review I think I would have to agree with this idea. For those who might want more info on it here is what I have found.

Red sprite discharges in the atmosphere at high altitude: pretty good stuff, of course my brain is hurting from all of the math.

Thanks for bringing that to my attention guys. It still looks cool to me though.

reply to post by JimOberg


Hello Jim!

I think it was in an article of the german newspaper DER SPIEGEL, where I read about the reports of the pilots that saw those legendary "sprites". Though I tried, I was not lucky to find that article again, but I found an ATS-thread someone made in early 2010 about those "sprites", and right in the OP he quoted a report about the first known pilot-sightings of "sprites" in the 50ies:

www.abovetopsecret.com...

According to another german article I found, the first description of that strange phenomenon was published in 1886 by MacKenzie and Toynbee in Nature.

A very cool video of "sprites" filmed by NASA can be found here:

www.youtube.com...


Hope I could help!

kind regards,
Peloquin

Originally posted by Peloquin

Darn it Peloquin now I'm all confused. That video of sprites is nothing like what I have recorded. The images of sprites in that video has been shot fairly close to the earth, and they do clearly look like lighting. But the flashes in my video are nothing like this, these are long streaks of light, and they all different colors, red, green, blue, orange and white. A closer look at my video will show that some of these flashes are just to close to the ISS for it to be these type of flashes. Just skip to the middle of my video around the 6min mark and I think you will see that this might be something different.

I'm sure it is a natural thing, but now I have to retract my statement that these are sprites.

reply to post by RealTruthSeeker


Not really, RTS, they are not common lightnings, indeed they're something different.!

Please take a look at the wikipedia-entry, there you can read about the difference!

en.wikipedia.org...


But I'll also take another look at your vid!

reply to post by RealTruthSeeker


Ok, I just watched your vid at the 6:55 mark, and I saw something that looked more like a beam than a lightning... and, indeed, all those different colors. hm... maybe they are really not sprites. But I'm no expert to be able to deliver a satisfying explanation. Of course your video is quite interesting! So thanks for the work you've done!!!

reply to post by RealTruthSeeker


Woot! Reminds me of the club! Sweet video, thanks for putting it together