Glowing tree tops caught on camera for first time

Scientists have discovered the tops of trees faintly glow during a thunderstorm and have caught this on camera for the first time.

The near-invisible sparkles appeared on the branches of several trees along the US east coast in 2024.

During thunderstorms, electrical fields at the tips of a tree's needles create a faint glow, called coronae.

Patrick McFarland and William Brune built their own machine to capture the phenomenon on camera, using a camera that could detect ultraviolet (UV) light that isn't visible to the human eye.

In North Carolina, during a 90-minute thunderstorm, they filmed two trees and compared videos of swaying branches on a regular camera with what was seen on the UV camera.

In research published in Geophysical Research Letters, they found that twinkling UV dashes matched up with the tips of branches.

The glows lasted for to three seconds, often hopping from leaf to leaf.

If you had superhuman vision, McFarland said, you'd probably be able to see the hundreds of trees glowing during thunderstorms.

"It'd probably look like a pretty cool light show, as if thousands of UV-flashing fireflies descended on the treetops," he said.

The scientists hope the discovery will shed light on how thunderstorms electrify the landscape and produce lightning.