Sprites, Camera, Action!

An astronaut aboard the International Space Station captured a red sprite, an atmospheric phenomenon associated with lightning, in a sequence of photos taken over North America. Storm clouds obscure the nighttime city lights of the U.S. Midwest and South. The space station’s Canadarm2 robotic arm appears as the dark, elongated feature in the center of the image sequence.

Timelapse videos captured from the station are created by shooting a long sequence of photographs at short intervals. The images are stitched together, using approximately 25 to 29 frames per second, to create a video that showcases thousands of miles of Earth within just a few minutes. This trimmed timelapse spans 19 seconds and provides views of northern Mexico and southern and midwestern U.S. states, and ends as the station approaches the Great Lakes and western Canada.

Flashes of lightning illuminate the storm system and produce one large sprite, visible to the right of the Canadarm2 at 15 seconds into the video (above) and in the photo (below). Sprites—an atmospheric phenomenon associated with powerful lightning events—occur in the mesosphere. This layer of the atmosphere is about 50-85 kilometers (31-53 miles) above Earth’s surface, far higher than the tops of cumulonimbus clouds associated with thunderstorms.

The International Space Station provides a unique vantage point above weather systems that allows observations of cloud tops and associated atmospheric phenomena, such as sprites and other transient luminous events (TLEs). Sprites appear to be connected to positively charged cloud-to-ground lightning strokes. The positively charged lightning interacts with atmospheric nitrogen, creating an electrical breakdown that produces flashes of red light. The sprite in this photograph has red tendrils associated with jellyfish sprites.

Sprites can be challenging to photograph. The night sky must be clear of clouds to capture a sprite on camera from Earth’s surface. An astronaut on the space station will set up a camera in the Cupola to take a timelapse sequence using a short focal length lens, such as the 28-millimeter lens used in this sequence. The short focal length allows for quick sequential photographs with a broader field of view, increasing the chances of documenting the phenomena. NASA’s Citizen Science Project, Spritacular, is building a database to host imagery of sprites and TLEs.

Astronaut photograph ISS071-E-234765 was acquired on June 26, 2024, with a Nikon Z9 digital camera using a focal length of 28 millimeters. The image was captured during the acquisition of timelapse ISS071-230987-234857. It is provided by the ISS Crew Earth Observations Facility and the Earth Science and Remote Sensing Unit, Johnson Space Center. The timelapse was taken by a member of the Expedition 71 crew. The image has been cropped and enhanced to improve contrast, and lens artifacts have been removed. The International Space Station Program supports the laboratory as part of the ISS National Lab to help astronauts take pictures of Earth that will be of the greatest value to scientists and the public, and to make those images freely available on the Internet. Additional images taken by astronauts and cosmonauts can be viewed at the NASA/JSC Gateway to Astronaut Photography of Earth. Caption by Sara Schmidt, GeoControl Systems, JETS II Contract at NASA-JSC.