A sprite is a large-scale electrical discharge that flashes high above a thunderstorm cloud, appearing as a quick, eerie red-orange glow shaped like a jellyfish or tree branches. Also known as upper-atmospheric lightning, they occur 50 to 90 kilometers (31 to 56 miles) above Earth's surface and last for only a few milliseconds.

Sprites, also known as red sprites or large scale electric discharges that occur in the mesosphere, high above thunderstorm clouds, or cumulonimbus, giving rise to a varied range of visual shapes flickering in the night sky. They are usually triggered by the discharges of positive lightning between an underlying thundercloud and the ground.

Sprites appear as luminous red-orange flashes. They often occur in clusters above the troposphere at an altitude range of 50–90 km (31–56 mi). Sporadic visual reports of sprites go back at least to 1886.[1] They were first photographed on July 4, 1989,[2] by scientists from the University of Minnesota and have subsequently been captured in video recordings thousands of times.

Jellyfish Sprite: very large, up to 31 by 31 miles (50 by 50 km)

Column Sprite (C-sprite): large electrical discharges above earth, not understood

Carrot Sprite: a column sprite with long tendrils.

The earliest known report is by Toynbee and Mackenzie in 1886. Nobel laureate C. T. R. Wilson had suggested in 1925, on theoretical grounds, that electrical breakdown could occur in the upper atmosphere, and in 1956 he witnessed what possibly could have been a sprite. They were first documented photographically by scientist from the University of Minnesota on July 6, 1989, using a low-light video camera, accidentally captured the first image of what would subsequently become known as a sprite.

Several years after their discovery they were named sprites (air spirits) after their namesake mythological entity based on their elusive nature. Since the 1989 video capture, sprites have been imaged from the ground, from aircraft and from space, and have become the subject of intensive investigations. A high-speed video captured by Thomas Ashcraft, Jacob L Harley, Matthew G McHarg, and Hans Nielsen in 2019 at about 100,000 frames per second provided some observations on how sprites develop. However, according to NASA′s APOD blog, despite being recorded in photographs and videos for more than 30 years, the root cause of sprite lightning remains unknown, except that from a general association with positive cloud-to-ground lightning. NASA also notes that not all storms exhibit sprite lightning.

Since 2022 NASA operates a citizen science website and database called Spritacular collecting and studying images of sprites by citizens.

Blue Jets: extentions upward from troposphere clouds storms

Temdrils: extensions downward from sprites