UFO's mistaken for thunder storm SPRITES

I recently stumbled across this video via yahoo home page showing the reaction and energy patterns that are discharged from thunderstorms. Does this really debunk UFO sightings??? HMMMmmmm im not so sure, so does that mean it is more BS cover ups from media yet again or truly an amazing scientific find?? you be the judge

www.livescience.com...

the following is an explanation of the video which if does not load then click on www.livescience.com and go to videos and search "sprite streamers"




Mysterious UFO sightings may go hand in hand with a puzzling natural phenomenon known as sprites — flashes high in the atmosphere triggered by thunderstorms.
The dancing lights have appeared above most thunderstorms throughout history, but researchers did not start studying them until one accidentally recorded a sighting on camera in 1989.
"Lightning from the thunderstorm excites the electric field above, producing a flash of light called a sprite," said Colin Price, a geophysicist at Tel Aviv University in Israel. "We now understand that only a specific type of lightning is the trigger that initiates sprites aloft."
Researchers have detected the flashes between 35 and 80 miles (56-129 km) from the ground, far above the 7 to 10 miles (11-16 km) where usual lightning occurs. Sprites can take the form of fast-paced balls of electricity, although previous footage has suggested streaks or tendrils.
The cause or function of the flashes remains murky, but Price suggested that they could explain some of the UFO reports which have cropped up over the years. That might provide some solace for UFO enthusiasts disappointed by human-caused hoaxes in the past.
Both jetliner pilots and astronauts have previously reported sightings of sprites, along with a different but equally mysterious phenomenon known as blue jets.
Price and his colleagues have focused on "winter sprites" which appear only in the northern hemisphere's winter months. Their remote-controlled roof-mounted cameras can spot thunderstorms producing sprites far out over the Mediterranean Sea.
Triangulation techniques have also allowed the researchers to calculate the dimensions of the sprites.
"The candles in the sprites are up to 15 miles high, with the cluster of candles 45 miles wide — it looks like a huge birthday celebration!" Price said.
Sprites may have some effect on the Earth's ozone layer, but researchers suspect that the global impact is small.

Sprites do explain some UFO sightings but not all. Obviously it depends on the weather but as far as it being some kind of cover-up... ummmm.... no!

IRM

Originally posted by Andy Ashe 30UK
im not so sure, so does that mean it is more BS cover ups from media yet again

Yes, each and every natural explanation for some UFO phenomenon is an attempt to cover-up the truth. We all know that each and every UFO sighting is of a genuine alien craft. There has never been a misidentification of natural phenomenon!

What absolute mental buffoonery.

read the whole sentence!!

i was referring to the fact that the story reported that sprites are mistaken for half if not more of ufo sightings according to the story and its also common knowledge that media like yahoo and others post so many stories that shoot down ufo sightings with quotes of little green men and anything else to make the masses laugh it off! i cant see how folk would mistake a sprite flare for a ufo, and how many ufo's have actually been seen in or during electrical storms!?
"
so it was a fair question, i am not saying this is a cover up "story"i did not mean cover up in that way, i am saying IS this media again writing a story with the sole purpose of debunking ufo's and miss information stating half of ufo's are mistaken for sprites which i find hard to believe hence media BS, and throwing a story out into the mass public that average joe blogs will read and think ahhh right so all these ufo sightings and reports of late are probably just sprites then.


dont be a smart ass

and by writing a story i mean covering a story, i am well aware of this being a true and amazing phenomenom, if u think i thought the whole story was a made up cover up then your way off the mark.

Originally posted by Andy Ashe 30UK
UFO's mistaken for thunder storm SPRITES

Shouldn't that be 'Thunder storm sprites mistaken for UFOs'?

The thread suggests that meteorologist were looking at what they thought were storm discharges but were actually spaceships upon closer inspection.

Thunder storm sprites last for just a fraction of a second, and they occur above the clouds. How they can get mistaken for flying craft amuses me. Cos they look just like large traingles, or big silver discs. Yeah, sure they do *nudge nudge, wink wink*


mmmmmm I smell dissinfo. *drools*

Originally posted by Acidtastic
How they can get mistaken for flying craft amuses me. Cos they look just like large traingles, or big silver discs...

mmmmmm I smell dissinfo.

I smell someone who did not bother actually reading the article. After all, who needs to when you already know, without even reading it, that it's disinformation.

Disinformation is a loaded term, implying a falsehood being passed as a truth. Do you have any information at all that Dr. Price's research is wrong or that he is lying?

Again, mental buffoonery.

[edit on 24-2-2009 by SaviorComplex]

Theres some interesting footage here that doesn't look like sprites:
www.abovetopsecret.com...

Originally posted by SaviorComplex

Originally posted by Acidtastic
How they can get mistaken for flying craft amuses me. Cos they look just like large traingles, or big silver discs...

mmmmmm I smell dissinfo.

I smell someone who did not bother actually reading the article. After all, who needs to when you already know, without even reading it, that it's disinformation.

Disinformation is a loaded term, implying a falsehood being passed as a truth. Do you have any information at all that Dr. Price's research is wrong or that he is lying?

Again, mental buffoonery.

[edit on 24-2-2009 by SaviorComplex]

I don't need to read the article. I know what sprites are. This is an exuse for people who are really clutching at straws to stop their world being invaded intrusive thoughts about things that might change their world view.

Nothing more. How you can seriously debate that sprites account for any percentage of UFo sightings, when they've only been "known about" for 20 or so years is laughable. They last for a fraction of a second, and they occur only above thunder storms. This is a pony exuse for ufo sightings.

Originally posted by Acidtastic
I don't need to read the article. I know what sprites are. This is an exuse for people who are really clutching at straws to stop their world being invaded intrusive thoughts about things that might change their world view.

That's quite a grandiose plot Acidtastic! Stopping intrusive thoughts that might change their world view? It's a straw man argument. The common mantra of those who think everything is a conspiracy.

Originally posted by Acidtastic
How you can seriously debate that sprites account for any percentage of UFo sightings, when they've only been "known about" for 20 or so years is laughable.

Regardless of how long they've been known about, are you suggesting that they couldn't be observed or misidentified by a casual observer until then? Were they invisible? That logic is flawed. There are a myriad of forces inside thunderstorms that discharge all kinds of energy, plasma etc. I'm sure we haven't discovered them all yet, and even if some Sprites are not wrongly identified as UFO's (as in unidentified flying objects, not aliens), they could very well be another type of natural phenomena.

I'm not saying ET craft don't exist but I'm not closed minded enough to speak in such absolutes as you appear to be. I know your post was aimed at SC but I thought I'd chime in anyway.

IRM

[edit on 24/2/09 by InfaRedMan]

Originally posted by Acidtastic
I don't need to read the article.

Thought so. That tells us all we need to know.

Originally posted by Acidtastic
This is an exuse for people who are really clutching at straws to stop their world being invaded intrusive thoughts about things that might change their world view.

By not reading the article, you could just as easily be describing yourself here.

[edit on 24-2-2009 by SaviorComplex]

Originally posted by karl 12
Theres some interesting footage here that doesn't look like sprites:

And here is yet another person who didn't bother reading the article.

Originally posted by Acidtastic
They last for a fraction of a second, and they occur only above thunder storms. This is a pony exuse for ufo sightings.

While they occur above thunderstorms, they can be seen from the ground. They have been documented since the 1886, two decades before the first flight. Sprites can be dozens of miles big, and visible from hundreds of miles away.

Sprites seen from ground level

More sprites seen from ground level

And yet another.

And still yet another

So, if I got this correct; this "theory" (which it really just is) come up by "scientists", (who as far as I am conserned, knows very little about the nature of lightning) is supposed to explain a phenomenon like this??

Or did I get it all messed up?

OT: Can someone point me to the thread where the video in my link is/was discussed?
Thankful for that...

Originally posted by Raud
So, if I got this correct; this "theory" (which it really just is) come up by "scientists", (who as far as I am conserned, knows very little about the nature of lightning) is supposed to explain a phenomenonlike this?[/url]?

Or did I get it all messed up?

It's the latter. You are so far off base it is obvious you are yet another person who did not even bother reading the article.

It is becoming quite apparent there are very few clear, rational thinkers among the UFO believers of this board. They no longer "deny ignorance" but instead wallow in it.

OK, good.

I was rather "off base" there, just as you said.

I'll blame tiredness.
I am really tired.

Sorry for the OT.

Hold up *pulls handbreak*

You (OP) say I need to read the article. Butthe link you posted, there's just a video (which I watched) It is of sprites, in slo mo.

And Infraredman. No I genuinly don't believe that they could have been mistaken for any flying object. They're only visible for a split second, so even if they were seen from the ground by an observer, then it'd only be a flash in the corner of someones eye. Not a nice long sighting of strange craft flying about. (and yes, I use strawman arguments, but most of what I say is tounge in cheek and over simplified on purpose)

It would be interesting to see if one of those high altitude 'sprites'

actually punched a hole through an Aurora Borealis, northern lights

would there be a explosion?
or would these two forms of electricity/ionization interact at all?