View at EarthSky Community Photos. | Stephen Hummel, who works at McDonald Observatory in West Texas, captured this cheerful lightning sprite – aka a red sprite – on July 2, 2020. McDonald Observatory is a spearhead for a Dark Skies Initiative in his region. Stephen commented, “Dark skies help you to see faint objects like sprites.” Thank you, Stephen!
Did you know that lightning strikes – like the one pictured above – exist above some thunderstorms? Sprites are not very well known, except for meteorologists, nature photographers and others who study the skies. They are not very rare, but they are cheerful. They are not easy to catch on film. Lightning bolts are electrically discharged high into the Earth’s atmosphere. They are associated with thunderstorms, but they are not born in the same clouds that send us rain. Thunder – in fact all terrestrial weather – occurs in the layer of the Earth’s atmosphere called the troposphere, which extends from the earth’s surface to about 4 to 12 miles (about 6 to 19 km) up. Lightning sprites – also called red sprites – occur in the Earth’s mesosphere, up to 80 km high in the sky.
So when you stand on the earth’s surface and you see one, it appears relatively small, although sprites can actually cross 50 km (50 km). As Matthew Cappucci of the Washington Post’s Capital Weather Gang said in an article on lightning bolts last year:
Imagine that one electric discharge goes over the distance from Baltimore to Washington, DC
Cappucci also commented:
Although sprites are poorly understood, atmospheric electrodynamics have invented the basics behind their formation. Sprites are often triggered by a strong, positive bump of ordinary lightning at the ground. They are thought to be a balancing mechanism that uses the atmosphere to release charges vertically. It is a fast process that takes less than a tenth of a second.
That’s what makes hunting sprites so difficult. Blink and you will miss them.
The cheerful aspect of lightning rods probably explains why – when people first see photos of them – they are amazed that such a strange weather phenomenon even exists.
It has also not been so many years since lightning bolts were confirmed. In the 20th century, pilots spoke of “flashes above thunderstorms.” Lightning rods as we know them today were not captured and their intricate structure did not begin to be recorded on film until as late as 1989, when experimental physicist John R. Winckler (1916-2001) happened to catch one while testing a low-light television camera.
Nowadays, people all over the world regularly capture photos of lightning bolts. You will find many photos of her in this gallery from SpaceWeather.com.
To photograph a sprite, you need a dark sky and a clear view of a distant thunder. The sky should be dark because you are taking long exposures; too much ray of light in your air will wash your photo and make splashing impossible. One of the most successful sprite photographers in the US, and probably in the world, is Paul M. Smith. He conquered the sprite below in June 2020. You can follow him on Twitter: @PaulMSmithPhoto. Or find him on YouTube.
Want more photos of lightning bolts? Try these:
Lightning sprites across the Andes in early 2020, by Yuri Beletsky
Lightning Sprites over Oklahoma in 2018, by Paul Smith
Captures of distant red sprites from the International Space Station
Massive Jellyfish spoke yesterday close to storms from Kansas. 06/21/20 0415UTC. Every year for the last 3 years I have managed good Fries on Fathers day. Good tradition 🙂 #okwx #kswx @stormhour @ASIM_Payload @NASA pic.twitter.com/4xFaqsaHld
– Paul M Smith (@PaulMSmithPhoto) June 21, 2020
Bottom line: Lightning sprites, like red sprites, which often occur in tandem with lightning, are short-lived electrical outbursts that flash high above thunderstorms in the mesosphere of the atmosphere.
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