What are lightning sprites? | Earth – EarthSky

Did you know that lightning sprites – like the one captured in the image above – exist above some thunderstorms? Sprites aren’t terribly well known, except to meteorologists, nature photographers and others who study the skies. They aren’t rare, but they’re fleeting. They’re not easy to capture on film. Lightning sprites are electrical discharges high in Earth’s atmosphere. They’re associated with thunderstorms, but they’re not born in the clouds that send us rain. Thunderstorms – in fact all ea…

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