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blue jet

noun

a faint discharge of blue light from the top of a thunderstorm cloud that propagates upward: extends approximately from the bottom to the top of the stratosphere and is not detectable from the ground.

Origin of blue jet

1990–95

Also called reverse lightning.

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019

blue jet in Science

blue jet

A conical discharge of blue light that starts from the top of active thunderstorm clouds and proceeds upward. Blue jets can last up to several hundred milliseconds and are believed to connect the top of a thundercloud with the ionosphere.

The American Heritage® Science Dictionary Copyright © 2011. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.