April 7, 2021: Spring is the season for sprites, and Paul Smith just photographed a magnificent display over Kansas. “These were my first big sprites of the season,” says Smith, who took this picture on April 6th:

“They were so bright, I saw a couple of them with my unaided eyes,” he adds.

Sprites are a weird form of lightning that leap up from powerful thunderstorms. The ones Smith saw are “jellyfish sprites”, named for their resemblance to sea creatures. Their red tentacles stretch about 90 km high, almost touching the edge of space. Other forms exist, too.

At this time of year, severe storms set the stage for sprite formation. Mesoscale convective systems sweep across the Great Plains, cracking with intense electric fields that drive electrons up and into sprites. La Niña conditions in the Pacific Ocean may amplify this process.

Although the sprites were in Kansas, Smith saw them from Oklahoma. This weather satellite image shows the observing geometry.

“I was about 200 miles away from the thunderstorm,” says Smith. Turns out, that’s about the right distance. You have to be far away to see sprites over the top of the thunderclouds.

Although sprites have been reported by pilots and storm chasers for more than a century, many scientists were skeptical. Can you blame them? “Doctor, I just saw a giant red jellyfish in the sky!” A turning point came in 1989 when sprites were photographed by researchers at the University of Minnesota and cameras onboard the space shuttle. Now sprites are in the mainstream. See for yourself.

Realtime Sprite Photo Gallery
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