NASA astronaut captures rare electric sprites from space. Know when green 'ghosts' were seen over Himalayas

NASA astronaut Nichole Ayers captured a sprite from the space station while orbiting above Mexico and the United States. Sprites are a rare atmospheric phenomenon that occurs because of intense electrical activity in the storm clouds. Ayers shared the photo on X, and wrote alongside, “Just. Wow. As we went over Mexico and the US this morning, I caught this sprite.” Sprites are a type of Transient Luminous Event (TLE). Its small bursts of light occur high above thunderstorms. Sprite stands for Stratospheric Perturbations Resulting from Intense Thunderstorm Electrification. They are basically massive discharges of electricity in the Earth's upper atmosphere. Sprites have been earlier captured from Earth over the Himalayas.

Also Read: Green 'ghosts' and 'red sprites': Scientists reveal what caused strange phenomenon in Himalayas

Ayers noted that these pictures taken from space can help scientists understand more about sprites and what's really going on up there. "We have a great view above the clouds, so scientists can use these types of pictures to better understand the formation, characteristics, and relationship of TLEs to thunderstorms," he wrote. Sprites have not always been an accepted phenomenon. Until 1989, no one believed sprites were real. Pilots had often reported seeing the electric "red lightning", but only when they were accidentally photographed, scientists started believing in them.

Red sprites and green ghost captured over Himalayas

In 2022, red sprites were captured over the Himalayas. But at that time, no one knew what they were. The red lights were photographed from near a lake site in the southern Tibetan plateau. A study published in the journal Advances in Atmospheric Sciences found that the red wonder that was seen in the Himalayas was linked to thunderstorms. Two astrophotographers near the Pumoyongcuo Lake in Tibet saw the "dancing red sprites" above the Himalayas. They clicked pictures while being scared at the same time as they looked like dancing jellyfish. It won the Skyscapes category of the 2023 Astronomy Photographer of the Year competition.

There were not only red sprites but 16 rare secondary jets. A green airglow called "ghosts" at the base of the ionosphere was recorded for the first time in Asia. “Nearly half of these events involved dancing sprites, with an additional 16 uncommon secondary jets and at least four extremely rare green emissions called ‘ghosts’ observed following the associated sprites,” study authors wrote. They found that the sprites were triggered by a "high-peak current" positive cloud-to-ground lightning strikes within a massive convective system that spanned a cloud area of over 200,000sqkm.