Cosmos/Sprites

Sprites, ELVES & Jets

Also known as Upper-atmospheric lightning or Transient Luminous Event.

Upper-atmospheric lightning and ionospheric lightning are terms sometimes used by researchers to refer to a family of short-lived electrical-breakdown phenomena that occur well above the altitudes of normal lightning and storm clouds. Upper-atmospheric lightning is believed to be electrically induced forms of luminous plasma. The preferred usage is transient luminous event (TLE), because the various types of electrical-discharge phenomena in the upper atmosphere lack several characteristics of the more familiar tropospheric lightning.

Other types of TLEs include sprite halos, ghosts, blue jets, gigantic jets, pixies, gnomes, trolls, blue starters, and ELVES.

According to astronomy.com, Sprites were captured by a camera for the first time in 1989, but the existence of elves wasn't confirmed until orbiting "space" shuttles recorded them on video in the 1990s.

Sprites

Sprites are more than just mythical creatures — they are a mysterious form of lightning that dances near the edge of space. They are reddish bursts of electricity at altitudes of about 50 miles (80 kilometers) that last less than a second but are bright enough to see in daylight. These enigmas are often shaped like jellyfish, starting as balls of light that rapidly stream downward, but can also look like crowns or carrots.

ELVES

The acronym ELVES (“Emission of Light and Very Low Frequency perturbations due to Electromagnetic Pulse Sources”)

Like sprites, elves are reddish, ultra-fast bursts of electricity bright enough to see during the daytime high in the Earth's atmosphere. But elves are ring-shaped halos that can spread to more than 185 miles (300 kilometers) wide. Scientists first captured images of elves and sprites dancing above thunderstorms in the late '80s and early '90s. The leading culprit behind elves and sprites is positive lightning.

Blue jets

Blue jets are cones of blue light brighter than sprites that spray upward from the tops of thunderclouds up to an altitude of about 25 miles (40 kilometers) at speeds of about 22,370 mph (36,000 km/h). They most frequently happen early in thunderstorms, and seem to be linked with strong hail.

Blue starters

Blue starters resemble blue jets, but are much shorter, protruding upward from cloud tops about 10 miles (17 kilometers) to a maximum of about 16 miles (25.5 km) in altitude. Blue starters are thought to be closely related to blue jets — they may even be incomplete blue jets.

Gigantic jets

Huge bursts of lightning known as gigantic jets may be the tallest kind of lightning in the world. More than 50 miles (80 kilometers) above Earth's surface, extreme ultraviolet radiation from the sun reacts with air molecules to produce highly charged particles in a region near the edge of space known as the ionosphere. In 2001, scientists discovered gigantic jets of lightning arcing up from clouds in the lowest portion of the atmosphere, the troposphere, to the ionosphere. Researchers have since found they can leap up 50 to 56 miles (80 to 90 km). The bottoms of gigantic jets appear similar to blue jets, while the tops resemble sprites.