Red Sprites and Thunderstorm seen from space
author: Nasa/Novapix
reference: t-nua06-00060
Image Size 300 DPI: 69 * 46 cm
Astronaut aboard the International Space Station shot this unusual photograph of a red sprite above the white light of an active thunderstorm, in july 2025 . 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.