Flashes Too Fast for Most Eyes

High above some thunderstorms, a split second after a powerful lightning strike, giant reddish-orange flashes can burst into shapes that look like jellyfish, carrots, or columns. These are sprites, and NASA is again asking the public to help photograph them.

Sprites are the most frequently observed type of transient luminous event, or TLE, a family of brief, colorful flashes that thunderstorms generate above the clouds. They typically appear about 50 miles above storms, FOX Weather reported on Nov. 1, citing NASA. Their red color comes from nitrogen in the thin upper atmosphere glowing as it is electrically excited. Sprites generally occur between about 31 and 56 miles (50 to 90 kilometers) up, IFLScience reported, far above the tops of the clouds that produce them.

They can be enormous. A single sprite can stretch tens of miles from top to bottom, with reddish tops and bluish tendrils hanging below — yet the entire event is over in a fraction of a second.

Despite decades of observations, scientists still do not fully understand how sprites form or why they take on such varied shapes. That gap is the reason behind NASA's Spritacular citizen science project.

A Discovery That Started by Accident

Sprites were long rumored in pilot reports and anecdotes, but scientists had no hard evidence until 1989. That year, researchers at the University of Minnesota accidentally captured the first known image of one while testing a low-light camera.

Burcu Kosar, a space physicist at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, and Spritacular's principal investigator, has described that moment as the start of a field. "The whole field was kickstarted because a camera was pointed in the right direction," she said, as quoted by Smithsonian Magazine.

Since then, sprites have been filmed from mountaintops, airplanes and the International Space Station. Astronauts have photographed them from orbit several times, offering a rare top-down view of the flashes. Researchers have linked them generally to strong positive cloud-to-ground lightning, but not every storm produces them. They last only milliseconds, which is part of what makes them so hard to study.

Other TLEs carry equally whimsical names, including elves, halos, blue jets, gigantic jets, TROLLs, and green ghosts. Each represents a different way energy from a thunderstorm reaches into the upper atmosphere.

Questions Scientists Want Answered

NASA has listed several open questions on its Spritacular project page. Scientists want to know how often sprites occur, why their shapes vary so dramatically, and how they connect to gravity waves rippling through the upper atmosphere.

Answering those questions could improve understanding of the region between the weather layer and space, a part of the atmosphere that is difficult to measure with satellites or weather balloons. That layer, the mesosphere, is too high for balloons and too low for most satellites to sample directly, which is why ground-based images are so valuable.

Citizen photographs also fill gaps in time and place. A single camera in Nebraska or Texas can record dozens of sprites over one storm, and many cameras spread across a region can capture the same event from different angles, letting scientists reconstruct its shape and height.

The challenge is coverage. Professional cameras capture sprites only in a few places, while amateur photographers capture striking images that end up scattered across social media. "Spritacular will bridge this gap by creating the first crowdsourced database of sprites and other TLEs," Kosar said when the project launched in 2022.

As the database grows, Kosar plans to add software that automatically cross-references submissions with lightning and thunderstorm records. That would let scientists match each sprite to the lightning strike that triggered it.

Practical Tips for Sprite Chasers

Readers do not need professional equipment to try — a camera that can shoot in low light is usually enough. According to FOX Weather and NASA, the most important factor is position. Sprites are best seen from roughly 60 to 250 miles away from a thunderstorm, where you have a clear, dark view of the sky above the storm clouds. Standing under or near the storm will not work, because the clouds block the view and lightning makes the situation dangerous.

Pick a location away from city lights with a low, unobstructed horizon in the direction of a distant storm. Large nighttime storm systems over the Great Plains and the Gulf Coast are often good targets, viewed from far away.

Sync your camera's clock to an accurate time source before you start. That step is critical, because scientists need precise timestamps to match a sprite to lightning data. Aim the camera above the distant storm and be patient, since sprites are unpredictable and many storms produce none. Many photographers use a tripod and record video or long sequences of images to improve their odds.

To share images, visit spritacular.org, select the Get Started tab, and follow the four-step directions, including when and where the image was recorded. Experienced sprite chasers in the project community also offer guidance for beginners.

Safety comes first. Never photograph from a location where you can hear thunder, since that means lightning is close enough to strike. Do not drive into or toward severe weather, and check National Weather Service forecasts and warnings before heading out.

Sprites are hard to see with the naked eye, but people in very dark locations occasionally spot faint red flashes above distant storms. A camera usually captures far more detail than the eye can.

The bottom line is that sprites remain one of the least understood features of thunderstorms, and ordinary photographers can help close that gap. A distant storm, a dark sky and a clock-synced camera are the essential ingredients.

What Readers Want to Know

What are red sprites? Brief reddish-orange flashes that occur about 50 miles above thunderstorms, moments after powerful lightning strikes.

When were sprites first photographed? In 1989, when University of Minnesota researchers accidentally captured one on camera.

Why are scientists still puzzled? Sprites last only milliseconds, and it remains unclear how and why they form their varied shapes.

How far from a storm should I be? About 60 to 250 miles away, with a clear, dark view of the sky above the clouds.

What camera settings matter most? Sync your camera's clock to an accurate time source so scientists can match your image to lightning data.

How do I submit photos? Go to spritacular.org, choose Get Started, and follow the four-step instructions.

Is it safe to chase sprites? Only from a distance. If you can hear thunder, you are close enough to be struck by lightning.