Viral: Time-lapse video of lightning striking Earth – shot by astronaut Tim Peake from International space station

February 11, 2016, NewsCrunch

Astronaut Tim Peake,  who is orbiting Earth from International space station (ISS), has shared a stunning video of lightning striking earth.

From the ISS, on the sky below, you see nearly continuous flashes of celestial light.

The rare footage was shot when the ISS flew from North Africa to Russiacovering a distance of 5,500 km over 10-12 minutes.

The time-lapse video compresses the footage to 30 seconds.

Tim Peake, whose space photos routinely go viral, noted that he was amazed  at how much lightning strikes earth planet in a short time.

Here is some data for him.

Lightning strikes occur on an average of 100 times a second and only 20 percent of these are cloud-to-ground strikes.

There is also an average of 2,000 active thunderstorms occurring at any given time.

Viral: Time-lapse video of lightning striking earth – shot by astronaut Tim Peake from International space station