Christos Doudoulakis, PhD

Our #paper about the first-ever observations of upper #atmospheric #lightning (#TLEs or Transient Luminous Events, e.g. “red #sprites”) from Greece: Doudoulakis, C.; Papathanasiou, T.; Sagiakos, D.; Tsouras, P. www.mdpi.com/2673-4931/26... Our findings were presented in #COMECAP2023

How about #Acropolis and #Parthenon with a #waterspout? At least 4 were around but this was the clearest/closest in order to confirm touch down from my spot. Sunday 25 Oct. 2026, ~1530 UTC.

A Miyake event would be an excellent solution to that totally useless thing. This should never leave the ground.

#RedSprites over the N. #Aegean Sea on Oct. 11-12, as captured from E. Attica and rain "swallowing" Athens on Oct. 13 (I wish there was a lightning bolt with this scenery but nope... next time). The last 5 days (nights actually) were interesting.

Last #night. #Thunderstorms near E. Attica. Some bolts from the blue.

#RedSprites over severe #thunderstorms at W Greece, as captured from #Athens with specialized light pollution filter. Over 70 were recorded in total. 8 Oct 2026

A small "break" with yesterday's #sunset accompanied by a #parhelion and a faint #pillar

Around 20 #red #sprites occurred at ~00-01 UTC, 22 Sep. 2026 over the northern #Aegean Sea close to #Lemnos isl. Four of these events follow, as they were captured from the eastern coast of Attica.

Rapid Warming in the Himalaya Exacerbates Geohazard Cascades Beyond Adaptation Limits www.worldweatherattribution.org/rapid-warmin...

😶 This is a completely different level. These events exhibit an increasing frequency around the planet, from the Alps to India and Nepal.

Just how quickly an activity surge happens: this is the Sun from Oct 18th to Nov 4th, 2003. Note the *3* enormous & complex active regions popping up. This was later in the cycle than where we are currently at, so there is still hope that we will see more severe space weather before solar minimum.

Opposition effect (the white aura around Ingenuity's shadow) clearly seen as well.

What a celestial event! The fact it was near the horizon made it look even bigger! And got the reflection of the corona over Sil river. A pity it lasted barely over a minute. #solareclipse2026 #eclipse

A Sunado? No, it's just a swirling tower of plasma interacting with the Sun's magnetic field and gravity. 3-hour time-lapse taken yesterday morning. Lunt 50mm double stack, ZWO ASI178MM, each frame made from 15s video taken at 15 s intervals. Thanks Autostakkert and ImPPG! #astrophotography

The Sunset of August 7, 2026 featured only a few fairly distant clouds low on the Western horizon, but with a 55-250 mm lens I could zoom in on an intriguing adornment, an 'Sun Pillar' forming a fuzzy vertical bar of light as the reddening sunlight was reflected by roughly aligned ice crystals.

Mars - Frost in Utopia Planitia - NASA Viking Lander 2 - From Andrea Luck (andrealuck.bsky.social) - https://flic.kr/p/2oDimoo

Earlier this morning, moonlight illuminated the eye of Super Typhoon Dolphin.

😍

Benjamin Netanyahu is a war criminal.

This is the same with the low temperature we had that night in Athens... BUT: a) They are in the middle of their winter b) at 1220 m This is a 23.2 deg. *deviation* or anomaly. Imagine in winter to have 26 deg instead of 3, as a *minimum* temperature.

From #dusk till #dawn, #Sounion, 17-18 Jul. 2026. An astro-break much needed. Next stop: Perseids (on a new moon this year 😍)

Awesome but, this is a gigantic jet.

A few shots from today's #thunderstorm

A record like this for Greece, would mean to reach 51 deg. Celsius in Athens for June (current June all time record 46.2). What happens in W. Europe, once more, these days, is beyond words.

Two more #thunderstorms today (17 June). Some #lightning shots and a #circumzenithal arc for a peaceful ending

#Summer #storms, yesterday ⚡

I sometimes log back into X to see who's still active. I am always disappointed. But it's the journals, employers, & other health organisations that shock me most. The message this sends about culture & values is so negative. From a quick scroll, I saw JAMA, Lancet, BMJ, APHA, Wellcome, NCRM, etc

Short-lived #iridescent #contrail this #afternoon. This occurs as a result of #diffraction of the #sunlight from the microscopic #ice crystals in the contrail, when the latter has an angular separation of ~10-30 deg. (here ~20) from the light source (here the Sun).

Today's #weather, #rain, #shelf #cloud, #sunset, #atmospheric #optics, #halos, #Athens, #storm, #May

Mars - Clouds over Terra Cimmeria - ESA Mars Express HRSC Full size 5k image: flic.kr/p/2sdpsHP 🔭🧪 Credit: ESA/DLR/FUBerlin/AndreaLuck CC BY 2025-07-24 South is up HR211_0000 ND3+GR3+BL3

#Circumhorizontal arc and 22 deg. #solar #halo on the menu today. #Contrails too. #Atmospheric #Optics #Spring #May #Clouds #Cirrus #Colors

#Solar #corona, today over #Athens, GR. An #atmospheric #optical phenomenon, which is the result of #diffraction of #light through the tiny droplets or ice crystals of semi-transparent #cloud layer (usually #alto clouds like the ones in the photo).

#Circumzenithal arc, #contrails and #iridescence a while ago. A small dose of the #sky today.

After several days with overcast+dust, I finally had the chance to capture #comet #PanSTARRS C/2025 R3 on Sunday morning (19 Apr). The temporal obs. "window" was small (10-15') before twilight becomes too bright. iOptron skytracker used. Exp. time 5x1'. Tamron 70-200 f/2.8 + Sigma Art 14 mm f/1.8

#Atmospheric optics, #MilkyWay, #airglow with #gravitywaves, #zodiacal and #antizodiacal light (gegenschein), #stars, #meteors, #colors, #clouds 🤩

Comet MAPS may have not survived, but C/2025 R3 (PanSTARRS) is putting on a show in the early hours sky. As of 8 April 2026, it has grown a long ion tail, and there are hints of a dust tail and is visible with large binoculars. Perihelion is on 11 days. #cometWatch #astrophotography

A bit of a different take on the amazing Artemis II launch footage. Here I stitched clips from the four Solar Array Wing Cameras to make this panoramic video. This is during the later part of the Core Stage burn until MECO and stage separation, sped up to 10x. 🔭🧪 #Artemis

This is indicative of how much #dust was hovering above our heads a couple of days ago. Watch how fast the sea becomes brown, at Tinos isl. www.facebook.com/reel/9605217...

You want some nice Artemis II launch video ? It just dropped :) #ArtemisII

A "supercell" of #dust. Yesterday's #sky over #Athens as another African dust transfer was at its peak. Crete and Cyclades were heavily impacted.

WHY ARE WE IN IRAN?

The fact that these breathtaking changes take place all around us (glaciers, weather patterns, seas, forests, etc), at least 2 orders of magnitude faster than any other period in Earth's past and thus can be observed within less than 1 human lifetime, should have been enough. But no...