Have you seen these strange lights in the sky? NASA wants your photos to help scientists
Sprites occur moments after a lightning strike, when a sudden reddish flash creates a range of artistic and sporadic shapes.
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A kind of transient luminous event or TLE, sprites are rarely observed with the human eye and how they form is not well understood.
THE TAKEAWAY
- TLEs are colorful, bright, faster-than-lightning flashes that thunderstorms generate above the clouds.
- NASA wants members of the public to submit visuals of sprites and other TLEs.
- Sprites occur moments after a lightning strike, when a sudden reddish flash creates a range of artistic and sporadic shapes.
NASA is asking the public to help researchers study Transient Luminous Events (TLEs), spectacular flashes of light that occur high above thunderstorms.
TLEs are colorful, bright, faster-than-lightning flashes that thunderstorms generate above the clouds, according to NASA.
The most frequently observed TLEs are called sprites, large reddish-orange flashes high in Earth's upper atmosphere, typically 50 miles above thunderstorms.
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TLEs have mythological names like sprites, TROLLS (Transient Red Optical Luminous Lineaments) and green ghosts.
Starting in 2022, NASA began the Spritacular citizen science project to advance the study of sprites and other TLE events by crowdsourcing observations of the colorful phenomenon.
Sprites are brief flashes of electricity that occur high above thunderstorms.
(@florian.riou via Storyful / FOX Weather)
The citizen project aims to connect professional scientists with members of the public who would like to contribute to these scientific studies.
"Spritacular will bridge this gap by creating the first crowdsourced database of sprites and other TLEs that is accessible and readily available for scientific research," said Dr. Burcu Kosar, a space physicist at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland.
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Sprites occur moments after a lightning strike, when a sudden reddish flash creates a range of artistic and sporadic shapes.
It remains unclear how and why these spectacular shapes form.
Rare and spectacular form of a TLE from the International Space Station.
(Nichole Ayers / NASA astronauts on board Expedition 44)
The first time this sort of atmospheric event occurred was in 1989, when researchers at the University of Minnesota accidentally caught it on camera.
If you’d like to participate in the citizen project, NASA has a few tips to help get the best results.
- Locate a nearby storm and place yourself 60 to 250 miles away, where you can see a clear, dark sky above the clouds.
- Sync your camera’s clock to a time source and aim your camera above the storm. Be patient.
- Share your pictures of TLEs with researchers and the community of sprite enthusiasts.
If you’re lucky enough to photograph the event, visit the project website, click the Get Started tab, and follow the four-step directions.
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The research will help scientists better understand Earth's upper atmosphere as space exploration continues to expand.