page_title: Upper-atmospheric lightning
section_title: Sprites
hierarchical_section_title: Upper-atmospheric lightning / Sprites
caption_attribution_description: English: First color image of a sprite. It was obtained during a 1994 NASA/University of Alaska aircraft campaign to study sprites.The event was captured using an intensified color TV camera. The red color was subsequently determined to be from nitrogen fluorescent emissions excited by a lightning stroke in the underlying thunderstorm. Deutsch: Erste Farbaufnahme eines Roten Kobolds, aufgenommen 1994 während einer Studie zur Erforschung Roter Kobolde der NASA und der Universität von Alaska. Das Ereignis wurde mit einer farbverstärkenden Videokamera aufgezeichnet. Die rote Farbe entsteht durch die Fluoreszenz von Stickstoff, der durch Blitze des darunterliegenden Gewitters angeregt wurde.
context_page_description: Upper-atmospheric lightning or ionospheric lightning are terms sometimes used by researchers to refer to a family of short-lived electrical-breakdown phenomena that occur well above the altitudes of normal lightning and storm clouds. Upper-atmospheric lightning is believed to be electrically induced forms of luminous plasma. The preferred usage is transient luminous event, because the various types of electrical-discharge phenomena in the upper atmosphere lack several characteristics of the more familiar tropospheric lightning.
context_section_description: Sprites are large-scale electrical discharges which occur high above a thunderstorm cloud, or cumulonimbus, giving rise to a quite varied range of visual shapes. They are triggered by the discharges of positive lightning between the thundercloud and the ground. The phenomena were named after the mischievous sprite, e.g., Shakespeare's Ariel or Puck, and is also an acronym for Stratospheric/mesospheric Perturbations Resulting from Intense Thunderstorm Electrification. They normally are colored reddish-orange or greenish-blue, with hanging tendrils below and arcing branches above. They can also be preceded by a reddish halo, known as a sprite halo. They often occur in clusters, lying 50 kilometres (31 mi) to 90 kilometres (56 mi) above the Earth's surface. Sprites have been witnessed thousands of times. Sprites have been held responsible for otherwise unexplained accidents involving high altitude vehicular operations above thunderstorms.
caption: First color image of a sprite, taken from an aircraft.
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