Nicole Ayers, a National Aeronautics and Space Administration (Nasa) astronaut, has recently captured a sight of an electrifying phenomenon, a giant red lightning “sprite”, from the International Space Station (ISS).
This “jellyfish”-shaped burst of light, shooting upwards from a thunderstorm over Mexico and the southern United States, offers researchers a unique opportunity to understand these elusive atmospheric events better, Live Science reported.
Ayers, the pilot of SpaceX’s Crew-10 mission and a member of ISS expeditions 72 and 73, snapped the striking image earlier this week, as the space station orbited above a large thunderstorm stretching across parts of Mexico, California, and Texas.
“Just. Wow. As we went over Mexico and the U.S. this morning, I caught this sprite,” Ayers wrote on X. “Sprites are TLEs or Transient Luminous Events, that happen above the clouds and are triggered by intense electrical activity in the thunderstorms below,” she added.
TLEs encompass a range of visual phenomena in the upper atmosphere during thunderstorms, including upward-shooting blue jets and UFO-like rings of light known as ELVES. However, sprites, like the one photographed by Ayers, are the most commonly observed.
Often described as “jellyfish” due to their multiple branching tendrils of light, or “carrots” when fainter tendrils trail behind them, sprites are typically associated with large thunderstorms, including those generated by hurricanes.
While airline passengers first observed sprites in the 1950s, it wasn’t until 1989 that they were successfully photographed. Despite over 30 years of study, researchers remain uncertain why some lightning strikes trigger sprites while others do not, according to Fox Weather.
Observing TLEs from Earth’s surface is possible under optimal conditions, but ISS astronauts are uniquely positioned to witness and photograph these phenomena, often simultaneously with lightning flashes. This provides invaluable data for researchers seeking to investigate how these events unfold.
“We have a great view above the clouds, so scientists can use these types of pictures to better understand the formation, characteristics, and relationship of TLEs to thunderstorms,” Ayers wrote.
