Sprite (lightning) - Wikipedia
Sprites or red sprites are large-scale electric discharges that occur in the mesosphere, high above thunderstorm clouds, or cumulonimbus, giving rise to a varied range of visual shapes flickering in the night sky.
What are lightning sprites? How to photograph them - EarthSky
Jul 22, 2023 · Lightning sprites – also known as red sprites – happen in Earth’s mesosphere, up to 50 miles (80 km) high in the sky.
Red Sprites – Like Lightning But Different - Science Notes and …
Nov 12, 2023 · A red sprite is a type of upper-atmospheric electrical discharge that appears at altitudes between 50–90 km (31–56 mi) in the atmosphere above some thunderstorms. Sprites are huge. Some are 50 km (31 mi) in diameter. Sometimes a red halo precedes a sprite.
Red lightning: The electrifying weather phenomenon explained - Space.com
Jul 13, 2022 · Red lightning, also known as a "sprite", is an intriguing weather phenomenon associated with certain very intense thunderstorms. While an ordinary lightning flash extends downward from the clouds...
NASA Image Reveals 'Red Sprites' Floating Above Thunderstorm
Jul 11, 2024 · Above the thunderstorm, the bright red flashes are a rarely captured lightning event called red sprites. These colorful bursts of energy could help researchers understand the Earth's climate...
Upper-atmospheric lightning - Wikipedia
Sprites are flashes of bright red light that occur above storm systems. C-sprites (short for "columniform sprites") is the name given to vertical columns of red light. C-sprites exhibiting tendrils are sometimes called "carrot sprites".
red sprites and blue jets - Encyclopedia Britannica
Red sprites and blue jets, flashes of light that occur above thunderstorms and that are associated with normal lightning in the thundercloud below. The causes of both phenomena are not known. Red sprites tend to form almost instantaneously over a broad region between 40 and 90 km (about 25 to 55.
Spritacular: NASA’s New Citizen Science Project to Capture Elusive ...
Oct 26, 2022 · Sprites occur at some 50 miles (80 kilometers) altitude, high above thunderstorms. They appear moments after a lightning strike – a sudden reddish flash that can take a range of shapes, often combining diffuse plumes and bright, spiny tendrils. Some sprites tend to dance over the storms, turning on and off one after another.
NASA SVS | Elusive Red Sprite - NASA Scientific Visualization Studio
Aug 7, 2012 · Resembling long, jellyfish-like tendrils, red sprites shoot above the tops of clouds in bright red spurts and last only milliseconds. Astronauts aboard the International Space Station were recently lucky enough to capture one on camera.
Sprites from space! Astronaut photographs rare red lightning …
Jun 25, 2024 · NASA astronaut Matthew Dominick caught a rare surprise while imaging an intense thunderstorm off the coast of South Africa. He spotted a red sprite, a rare type of lightning.