15 Types of Blue Lightning vs. Regular Lightning: Latest Scientific Discoveries

11. Blue Bursts: Explosive Energy in the Mesosphere

Recently discovered, blue bursts are a type of blue lightning occurring in the mesosphere—a layer of the atmosphere above the stratosphere. Blue bursts are some of the most often occurring atmospheric electrical events, unlike ordinary lightning, which is limited to the troposphere and reaches only altitudes of up to 80 kilometres. Blue bursts are very intense phenomena, unleashing volumes of energy equivalent to tiny nuclear explosions, according recent observations made using specialist satellite instruments. They differ from ordinary lightning and even from other kinds of blue lightning in this great power output. Blue bursts, according to scientists, could be very important in the global atmospheric electrical circuit and hence affect large-scale climate dynamics and weather patterns. This finding has opened fresh directions of investigation on the interactions between several layers of Earth's atmosphere and their effects on the general energy balance of our planet.