NASA astronaut discovers spectacular atmospheric 'sprite' captured from orbit

NASA astronaut Nichole Ayers captured a spectacular electric sprite in Earth's atmosphere from the International Space Station. "Wow! As we were flying over Mexico and the United States this morning, I captured this sprite," Meyers wrote on her X account on July 3 to describe the image.

Sprites are transient light events (TLEs) that occur above clouds and are triggered by the intense electrical activity of thunderstorms.

They frequently appear as an opaque, flattened glow that extends about 400 km in diameter and typically lasts only a millisecond. They occur in the ionosphere 100 km above the surface and above thunderstorms.

Their color remained a mystery for some time, but it is known to be reddish. The "sprites" were first recorded on another space mission , this time near French Guiana on October 7, 1990.

Because they form above thunderstorms, they are difficult to study from Earth . Ayers notes that scientists can use images like this to better understand the formation, characteristics, and relationship of ELTs to thunderstorms.