Art, Red Sprites & the NASA Space Shuttle Columbia/MEIDEX

Paper number

IAC-05-E5.P.07

Author

Mr. Peter McLeish, Peter McLeish, Canada

Year

2005

Abstract

I will discuss my art and science collaboration based on new phenomena named Red sprites. My presentation/discussion will primarily focus on the documentation and research of Red sprites in relation to my artwork and space exploration (including the tragic Space Shuttle Columbia mission named MEIDEX).
   
Red sprites are upper atmospheric optical phenomenon associated with thunderstorms that have recently been only documented using low level television. The first images of a sprite were taken in 1989 when the late aural physics expert Prof. John Winckler and his students were testing a low-light camera. From 1990 to 1994 the space shuttle obtained twenty more images. Despite nearly a century of anecdotal reports from airline pilots, most scientists didn't really believe in sprites until the first images were captured on high-speed video. Their position and beauty caused "a major frenzy of excitement" among scientists. Numerous images later, sprites remain poorly understood, because they disappear almost as soon as they form. The blink of an eye last 250 milliseconds: sprites often last only ten. Cameras and computer models freeze sprites in time.

I am a Canadian artist, who specializes in paintings and multi-media events which highlight the beauty of science. In 2001, two years after completing my Masters of Fine Arts degree at University of Guelph, I started an art and science collaboration with American scientist Walter A. Lyons: FMA Research - Sky-Fire Productions in Colorado based on Red Sprites. This collaboration eventually led to Walter A. Lyons receiving a National Science Foundation (NSF) grant for the creation of his DVD titled The Hundred Year Hunt for Red Sprites and interactive website. My interpretation of sprites as art was created in 2002, in the form of a video titled “Lightning’s Angels” and was screened at many major International art and science symposiums, conferences, festivals and events all over the world with the support of different branches of the Canadian Government. Lightning’s Angels is a six-minute video that combines digitally enhanced oil paintings of a Red sprite, in various states of transformation, accompanied by music. In 2002, my continued research, subsequently led to an additional collaboration with Dr. Colin Price from the Department of Geophysics and Planetary Science, Tel Aviv University who was working on the Meidex mission (which included sprite research) with the ill-fated crew of the NASA Space Shuttle Columbia in 2003.The Mediterranean Israeli Dust Experiment (MEIDEX) was performed on-board the space shuttle Columbia during its last mission in January 2003. Colin Price was working from a ground research station on Meidex. Many months ago, I was informed that astronauts did transmit some wonderful pictures and data of sprites on this last mission. The discovery of the triple sprite was made on this mission.

My presentation will include art and science videos that demonstrate a comprehensive look at the research of Red sprites in relation to space exploration. I will also discuss my new multimedia work based on Red sprite research from the MEIDEX.

Abstract document

IAC-05-E5.P.07.pdf

Manuscript document

IAC-05-E5.P.07.pdf (🔒 authorized access only).

To get the manuscript, please contact IAF Secretariat.