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View photos from the EarthSky community. | Stephen Hummel, who works at McDonald Observatory in West Texas, captured this ephemeral lightning sprite – aka a red sprite – on July 2, 2020. McDonald Observatory is leading a Dark Skies initiative in his area. Stephen commented: “Dark sky helps you see faint objects like sprites.” Thanks Stephen!
Did you know that lightning sprites – like the one captured in the image above – exist above some thunderstorms? Sprites aren’t widely known except for meteorologists, nature photographers, and others who study the sky. They are not particularly rare, but they are ephemeral. They are not easy to capture on film. Lightning sprites are high electrical discharges in Earth’s atmosphere. They are associated with thunderstorms, but they are not born in the same clouds that send rain to us. Thunderstorms – in fact all Earth weather – occur in the layer of the Earth’s atmosphere called the troposphere, which extends from the Earth’s surface up to about 6 to 19 km. Lightning sprites – also known as red sprites – occur in the earth’s mesosphere, up to 80 km high in the sky.
So when you stand on the surface of the Earth and spot one, it looks relatively small, even though, in fact, the sprites can be around 50 km in diameter. Like Matthew Cappucci from Washington post Capital Weather Gang said in an article on lightning sprites last year:
Imagine an electric shock spanning the distance from Baltimore to Washington, DC
Caps also commented:
Although sprites are poorly understood, atmospheric electrodynamicists have understood the basics of their training. Sprites are often triggered by a strong, positive lightning bolt close to the ground. They are believed to be a balancing mechanism that the atmosphere uses to distribute charges vertically. It’s a fast process that takes less than a tenth of a second.
This is what makes sprite hunting so difficult. Blink your eyes and you’ll miss them.
The fleeting appearance of lightning sprites is probably why – when people first see photos of them – they’re surprised that such a strange weather phenomenon even exists.
Plus, it hasn’t been that long since the Lightning Sprites were confirmed. In the 20th century, pilots spoke of “flashes above thunderstorms”. Lightning sprites as we know them today weren’t captured, and their complex structure didn’t begin to be recorded on film until 1989, when experimental physicist John R. Winckler (1916-2001) in captured one while testing a low -light TV camera.
Today, people all over the world regularly capture photos of lightning sprites. You’ll find plenty of photos of them in this gallery at SpaceWeather.com.
To shoot a sprite, you need a dark sky and a clear view to a distant thunderstorm. The sky must be dark because you will be taking long exposures; too much lens flare in your sky will erase your photo and make it impossible to capture sprites. One of the most successful sprite photographers in the United States, and possibly the world, is Paul M. Smith. He captured the sprite below in June 2020. You can follow him on Twitter: @PaulMSmithPhoto. Or find it on YouTube.
Want more photos of lightning sprites? Try this:
Lightning Sprites Over the Andes in Early 2020, by Yuri Beletsky
Lightning Sprites over Oklahoma in 2018, by Paul Smith
Captures of elusive red sprites of the International Space Station
Massive Jellyfish sprite up from near Kansas storms last night. 06/21/20 0415UTC. Every year for the past 3 years I have managed some good sprites on Father’s Day. Good tradition 🙂 #okwx #kswx @stormhour @ASIM_Payload @NASA pic.twitter.com/4xFaqsaHld
– Paul M Smith (@PaulMSmithPhoto) June 21, 2020
Bottom line: Lightning sprites, or red sprites, often occurring in tandem with lightning, are short-lived electrical discharges that flash above thunderstorms in the atmosphere’s mesosphere layer.
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