Gigantic jets are a kind of lightning discharge

On August 4, 2024, intense thunderstorms exploded about 100 miles (160 km) southeast of Puerto Rico. Some observers reported seeing a couple powerful bursts of electrical charge with their eyes alone, as some kind of brief “red lighting”. These rare phenomena are known as gigantic jets. Gigantic jets are a kind of lightning discharge that happens above thunderstorms. While most lightning discharge occurs between clouds and the ground, “gigantic jets” start at the cloud tops and reach all the way into the ionosphere.

Meteor cameras from the Astronomical Society of the Caribbean captured images of the curious event. Monochromatic (black and white) cameras show good detail of the shape or structure of these gigantic jets, while a color camera shows a burst of red light going upward.

Though gigantic jets are associated with thunderstorms, you can sometimes see them on clear, starry nights. That’s because the storm they are connected to can be so far away as to be beyond Earth’s curvature from the observer’s point of view. The storm is closer to the ground while the gigantic jets stretch all the way to the ionosphere. The ionosphere begins some 30 miles (48 km) above the ground, and gigantic jets can reach some 50 miles (80 km) above Earth.

In fact, gigantic jets are so high above Earth that astronauts aboard the International Space Station captured one near Thailand on July 1, 2024.

More on this unique lightning

Gigantic jets can be as much as 10 times larger than ordinary lighting, according to a 2022 study by the Georgia Institute of Technology. They are also separate from a similar phenomenon known as red sprites. Gigantic jets are more rare than red sprites, a similar phenomenon that can occur above storms. NASA said:

The bottoms of gigantic jets appear similar to a cloud-to-above strike called blue jets, while the tops appear similar to upper-atmosphere red sprites.

Bottom line: On August 4, 2024, gigantic jets – a rare type of lightning – exploded off the coast of Puerto Rico. Cameras from the Astronomical Society of the Caribbean caught video of this unique event.

Read more: Blue jets, red sprites and other flashes