From Northern Lights To Summer Sprites

Sprites                  Lomonosov Moscow State University

Earlier this month a large part of the US was treated to the best display of the northern lights in decades. We're not likely to see a show like that again this year but a forecast for thunderstorms this afternoon reminded me that it's time to mention another spectacular atmosperic event, the sprites. A sprite is a member of a family of upper atmosphere lightning phenomena called transient luminous events or TLE's. They actually occur rather frequently in a split second and are visible to the naked eye. Other members of the TLE family include blue jets and elves. All are associated with thunderstorms and although reports of sightings go back centuries they were unknown to science a little more than a generation ago. Digital photography and advanced computer technology enabled both their imaging and analysis beginning around 1995. 

Source: Centre Nationales D'Etudes Spatiales

I find these atmospheric events fascinating, beautiful, and mysterious but the probability of observing them in real time is practically nil. I have yet to see one in person. For certain I won't be seeing anything from my woodland home in Georgia or the eastern U.S. for that matter. When you find yourself in a thunderstorm-rich location with unlimited visibility beyond the horizon you have found the ideal conditions for LTE observation. In other words, our readers in Oklahoma, Texas, and other wide open spaces need only step out on the porch and into a comfortable chair to enjoy the possibility of seeing a rare and still mysterious show in the distant sky.

Below is an amazing video by the quintessential storm chaser, Pecos Hank, and the world's leading TLE photographer, Bill Smith. They are also credited with the discovery and naming of a new TLE they called the ghost. It's ten minutes of breathtaking photography and excellent instruction in what could be a complex subject for non-science folks. I can only hope the high standards of science instruction found in this video is in every classroom in the US.

In this brief video Pecos Hank documented the TLE activity over Texas on May 17, 2021, when he witnessed his "most incredible sprite storm...to date." As a weather observer for seventty years I can so appreciate his enthusiam on seeing such an amazing phenomenon.

These videos are but a small sample of Pecos Hank's award winning work focused on super-cell thunderstorms and tornadoes. If you enjoy weather science and storm chasing combined with high production values his You Tube channel is your destination.


Keep looking up!