Images Dated 5th June 2002

True-colour image of red sprite lightning

Red sprite lightning. First true-colour image of red sprite lightning above a thunderstorm. Red sprites typically extend from the cloud tops, which here are at an altitude of 16.5 kilometres (km), up to the ionosphere at 95 km. They last for a few milliseconds and are barely visible to the naked eye. Red sprites are associated with the most energetic positive-charge cloud-to-ground lightning strikes. These may leave uncompensated negative charge in and above the cloud. This may lead to quasi-electrostatic fields which cause ionization and light. Photographed at an altitude of 12.9 kilometres on 3 July 1994 over the USA

© DANIEL L. OSBORNE, UNIVERSITY OF ALASKA/ DETLEV VAN RAVENSWAAY/SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY

Corn (Zea mays), Stem XS showing Xylem Vessels, Phloem & Parenchyma, 80x

© Degginger, Phil / Animals Animals/Earth Scenes

Aa Photographer, Agricultural, Agriculture, Biology, Botany, Cell, Close Up, Commelinidae, Corn, Crop, Cyperales, Degginger, E R Degginger, Effect, Er Degginger, Farm, Farming, Grain Crop, Gramineae, Liliopsida, Magnified, Magnoliophyta, Microscopic, Parenchyma, Phloem, Plant, Plant Detail, Plantae, Poaceae, Science, Stem, Tracheobionta, Xylem, Zea, Zea Mays