Bright purple flashes of lightning can look striking from above the clouds. Astronaut Don Pettit has shared a view of the purple lightning flashing through clouds from the International Space Station.
In a post on X, Pettit wrote, “Nadir views from ISS of bright purple lightning flashing through clouds. The image offers a view of bright purple lightning flashing through towering clouds from an orbital perspective, highlighting the detail Pettit was able to capture from the ISS. Social media users were amazed to see the view. One user commented, “This is beautiful. Another user called it “Amazing.
He said these thunderheads can reach heights of up to 50,000 feet, higher than most planes fly, making them best observable from orbit. Pettit said he used a Nikon Z9 camera with a shutter speed of 1/1200th and recorded at 120 frames per second to optimise the detail of the lightning.
“Just gorgeous,” added a third user.
