NASA Astronaut Captures Mysterious 'Red Sprites' Glowing In Earth's Atmosphere

An astronaut aboard the International Space Station (ISS) has captured a stunning photo of glowing red lights in the Earth's atmosphere, known as "red sprites". These rare atmospheric phenomena were observed above thunderstorms off the coast of South Africa, offering a rare and intriguing glimpse into these elusive atmospheric phenomena.

According to a NASA press release, red sprites, are colourful bursts of energy that appear above storms as a result of lightning activity occurring in and below storms on Earth. They are brief, lasting only about a millisecond, but can be enormous, spanning up to 30 miles across. Unlike typical lightning bolts that descend from the clouds to the ground, a sprite behaves inversely, ascending into the atmosphere, resembling a form of reverse lightning.

''Super lucky a few weeks ago when shooting a timelapse of a lightning storm off the coast of South Africa. One of the frames in the timelapse had a red sprite. A rare event. My knowledge is pretty much just from Wikipedia but I want to know more,'' NASA astronaut Matthew Dominick wrote on X while sharing the image. The pic shows a stunning line of thunderstorms with a row of red sprites visible above the closest storm. 

See the image here:

Super lucky a few weeks ago when shooting a timelapse of a lightning storm off the coast of South Africa. One of the frames in the timelapse had a red sprite. A rare event. My knowledge is pretty much just from Wikipedia but I want to know more.

50mm lens, f1.2, 1/5s, ISO 3200 pic.twitter.com/CU1JpMwE8u

— Matthew Dominick (@dominickmatthew) June 20, 2024

Crew members typically capture Transient Luminous Events (TLEs), including red sprites, with wide focal lengths during Earth timelapses. Instruments mounted outside the station, like Atmosphere-Space Interactions Monitor (ASIM), can capture a range of data for researchers on Earth using cameras, photometers, and X-ray and gamma-ray detectors.

Reacting to the image, one user wrote, ''That is an awesome picture. Thanks!''

Another commented, ''Phenomenal, that vertical height is really interesting, red can mean interaction with Oxygen.''

A third said, ''Wow thank you for posting this!! I often browse through the Gateway to Astronaut Photography page from NASA but I didn't see that one. Amazing you caught a sprite from the ISS.''