#Transient Luminous Events

[kestarren]

"Gigantic Jet Lightning Event from the ISS taken by Astronaut Nichole Ayers." Correct descriptive title by Frankie Lucena.

"This Gigantic Jet Lightning Event was captured aboard the ISS on July 3, 2025 by Astronaut Nichole Ayers." Correct descriptive title by Frankie Lucena. From front page of SpaceWeather (7 July '25): 'SPACE LIGHTNING' PHOTOGRAPHED FROM THE ISS: On July 3, 2025, astronaut Nichole Ayers aboard the International Space Station captured a rare and breathtaking image: a Gigantic Jet bursting upward from a thunderstorm in North America. The high-resolution photograph shows a crimson bolt arcing from the cloudtops toward the edge of space.

"Just. Wow," Ayers posted after the event. "As we went over Mexico and the U.S. this morning, I caught this [Gigantic Jet] triggered by intense electrical activity in the thunderstorms below."

József Bór, an atmospheric scientist at the Institute of Earth Physics and Space Science in Hungary, was thrilled by the image. "Nichole's photo sets a new standard for space-borne observations of Gigantic Jets," he says. "Such a sharply focused and detailed photo of a Gigantic Jet has never been recorded from space." More (including an infographic depicting Gigantic Jets, Sprites and other Transient Luminous Events - TLEs):

[jackoshadows]

Just. Wow. As we went over Mexico and the U.S. this morning, I caught this sprite. Sprites are TLEs or Transient Luminous Events, that happen above the clouds and are triggered by intense electrical activity in the thunderstorms below. 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.

[octahedral-chaos]

I could google it, but it's way more fun to listen to you ramble about it, SO:

Transient Luminous Events. wanna tell me about them? And these EVLE things you mentioned?

OKAY SO

Transient Luminous Events, or TLEs, are a bunch of atmospheric phenomenon caused by lightning! They aren't true lightning, they're way too cold and is more like florescent lights.

So the way they formed is when an extremely strong positively charged lightning strikes, causing an imbalance of positive and negative ions in the atmosphere. Because the clouds have a different charge from the upper atmosphere, the particles move between the two layers, creating a TLE! So it's kind of like lightning but less extreme basically.

They occur in the upper atmosphere, from 20 to 100 kilometers above the ground I believe? They occur way above thunderstorms though. Plus they last anywhere from less than a millisecond to 2 seconds, so they are HARD to spot! Plus they tend to be quite faint... In fact, they were only discovered in 1989, although there were reports of them by pilots-

Anyways, onto different types. First off, red sprites!

The most commonly recorded TLE. The bigger ones tend to have blue at the bottom because of Nitrogen in the lower atmosphere exciting in the blue to ultraviolet wavelengths. Plus they may appear in clusters of "Dancing sprites!" Very cool tbh.

Oh and they may appear with a green afterglow on top, which are called Green Ghosts!

Next up, jets!

Basically a regular lightning strike triggering a secondary event. Very cool, there are three types: Blue starters, Blue Jets and Gigantic Jets.

And finally... ELVES

Short for "Emission of Light and Very Low Frequency perturbations due to Electromagnetic Pulse Sources" (What a mouthful!), ELVEs are my absolute favourite TLE. They could get up to 400 km wide, they occur over 100 km in the air and lasts for less than a MILLISECOND. They are so cool!!!!

There's others like halos, pixies, Trolls and Gnomes. So uhhhhh yeah! Cool false-lightning thingies

[distantobserver0]

NASA artistic renderings of sprite lightning in Jupiter's upper atmosphere. 2020, JPL / Caltech. Sometimes I feel like if we could have an extra-dimensional understanding of our universe, we would know for certain beauty is inherent to its nature.

[mizelaneus]

[i-suggest-carson]

[octastims]

A Canon divergent Angel (Worldless) moodboard with feathers, space, pigeons and ELVEs for me! Based on one of my potential fictotype (?).

🕊 🕊 🕊

🕊 🕊 🕊

🕊 🕊 🕊

[xlntwtch2]

a very fine look at "red sprites" in the sky - here, often above greece - these "transient luminous events" were first photographed in 1989, though they were reported by pilots decades previously

[cleverreports]

We report: in the small hours of the morning, we caught a few fairies dancing far above the storm. They immediately hid from view again, obviously self-conscious of our noticing them. Our expert whispered about transient luminous events, as though afraid of spooking them away.

[kestarren]

Sprites over storm, Levadia, Central Greece. Photo by Panagiotis Tsouras.

[everycorner]

Sprite

[distantobserver0]

Paul M Smith, 2024. Sprites with red airglow over Louisiana.

[wigmund]

Photo of a sprite above a thunderstorm taken July 3, 2025 by NASA astronaut Nicole Ayers from the International Space Station.

From Nicole Ayer's Instagram:

Just. Wow. As we went over Mexico and the U.S. this morning, I caught this sprite. Sprites are TLEs or Transient Luminous Events, that happen above the clouds and are triggered by intense electrical activity in the thunderstorms below. 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.

[10bmnews]

Red 'sprite' in space: Nasa astronaut shares elusive atmospheric phenomena; aids TLE research - The Times of India

Sprite captured by Nichole Ayers (Image credits: X @Astro_Ayers) While orbiting high above North America, NASA astronaut Nichole Ayers captured a rare sight- glowing red lights shimmering in Earth’s upper atmosphere. The phenomenon, known as a Transient Luminous Event (TLE) or “sprite,” appeared as a brief burst of red light above thunderstorms over Mexico and the United States.The rare…

[pyroclastic727]

All other TLEs in case sprites aren't enough for you

If you'd like to see them in action, I recommend this video by storm chaser Pecos Hank.

all i wanna do is eat nectarines and think about aurora borealis st. elmo’s fire gigantic jets ball lightning green flash earthquake lights and will-o-the-wisps

[apod]

2024 August 13

Giant Jet from the International Space Station Image Credit: NASA, Expedition 71 Crew, JSC, ESRS, Matthew Dominick; Processing: Simeon Schmauß

Explanation: What's that on the horizon? When circling the Earth on the International Space Station early last month, astronaut Matthew Dominick saw an unusual type of lightning just beyond the Earth's edge: a gigantic jet. The powerful jet appears on the left of the featured image in red and blue. Giant jet lightning has only been known about for the past 23 years. The atmospheric jets are associated with thunderstorms and extend upwards towards Earth's ionosphere. The lower part of the frame shows the Earth at night, with Earth's thin atmosphere tinted green from airglow. City lights are visible, sometimes resolved, but usually creating diffuse white glows in intervening clouds. The top of the frame reveals distant stars in the dark night sky. The nature of gigantic jets and their possible association with other types of Transient Luminous Events (TLEs) such as blue jets and red sprites remains an active topic of research.

∞ Source: apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap240813.html