NASA astronaut Don Pettit recently captured breathtaking footage of a rare atmospheric phenomenon, known as Transient Luminous Events or TLEs, while orbiting above South America on the International Space Station. Also referred to as “sprites,” these bright, colorful flashes of light are faster than lightning and can be seen from directly above.
Pettit recorded the video while looking down at the nadir, the point directly below a particular location, providing a unique perspective on this rare phenomenon. The footage shows a series of TLE displays over the Amazon basin, lasting around six seconds.
Sprites are created when electrical discharges from lightning shoot upward, creating bursts of plasma in the ionosphere. They were not captured on camera until 1989 and occur much higher than regular lightning, which travels downward to the Earth’s surface.
This is not the first time these phenomena have been caught on camera from space. In 2024, NASA astronaut Matthew Dominick captured a glimpse of red sprites, another elusive atmospheric phenomenon that occurs during powerful thunderstorms and travels upwards into the atmosphere.
Source: https://www.space.com/the-universe/earth/rare-colorful-lightning-caught-on-camera-by-iss-astronaut-ok-this-is-kind-of-out-there