

Deborah Byrd, " What are lightning sprites? (opens in new tab)", EarthSky, August 2020.

University of Alaska, " Red Sprites, Blue Jets and Elves (opens in new tab)" accessed July 2022.Kristine De Abreu, " Natural Wonders: Sprite Lightning (opens in new tab)", ExplorersWeb, January 2022.Meghan Gambino, " Scientists Capture Rare Photographs of Red Lightning (opens in new tab)", Smithsonian magazine, August 2013.Additional resourcesįor more information about weather phenomena check out, " An Introduction to Space Weather (opens in new tab)" by Mark Moldwin and " Space Weather Fundamentals (opens in new tab)" by George V.

Over the next few years, video recordings made by astronauts on the Space Shuttle captured several more examples, placing the phenomenon on a much firmer observational footing.
RED LIGHTNING TV
The first photograph of a sprite was taken by accident 1989, when a team from the University of Minnesota recorded an upward flash from the cloud tops while they were testing a low-light TV camera. (Image credit: NASA/University of Alaska)Īnecdotal accounts of lightning-like phenomena occurring above thunderstorms go back to the 19th century, but it was only in the 1950s, when red lightning was observed from airliners, and tentative physical theories were described, that it entered the scientific domain. The first color image of a sprite, obtained in 1994.
