images

Red Sprites and Thunderstorm seen from space

by

Nasa/Novapix

Reference

t-nua06-00044

Date

2016-08-04

Astronauts aboard the International Space Station shot this unusual photograph of a red sprite above the white light of an active thunderstorm (right). Sprites are major electrical discharges, but they are not lightning in the usual sense. Instead, they are a cold plasma phenomenon without the extremely hot temperatures of lightning that we see underneath thunderstorms. Red sprites are more like the discharge of a fluorescent tube. Bursts of sprite energy are thought to occur during most large thunderstorm events. They were first photographed in 1989.