photo #4866684

Instagram @paulmsmithphotography: Blue jets are so rare to see that only a handful have ever been captured worldwide from the ground or sky.It is such a fantastic thing to witness a storm 'exhale' these plumes of ionized gases up into the stratosphere. I describe this event as being like breathing because that's what I see in the videos. It's like the storm becomes overloaded with energy (like us taking a deep breath in) and then expels it through the very top (like us taking a strong breath out). I know that when we finally understand more about these beautiful phenomena, the mechanism will in no way match my metaphor, but it is just how my mind deals with such an amazing and complex event that is like nothing else in nature.I am so happy that some of the best scientists in the field are studying these captures and that I am helping to piece together this puzzle of how and why blue jets occur.In this single-image photograph, there are seemingly different morphologies of blue jets. To the right, a giant spotlight-type beam of a jet exits the top of the storm aiming towards space while to the left of it, multiple thinner jets seem to follow electric field lines above storm activity (like we see in some red sprites).I have an incredible video lined up for my BMAC subscribers in which I caught a blue jet and a meteor together.