True-colour Image of Red Sprite Lightning

Red sprite lightning First truecolour image of red sprite lightning above a thunderstorm Red sprites typically extend from the cloud tops which here are at an altitude of kilometres km up to the ionosphere at km They last for a few milliseconds and are barely visible to the naked eye Red sprites are associated with the most energetic positivecharge cloudtoground lightning strikes These may leave uncompensated negative charge in and above the cloud This may lead to quasielectrostatic fields which cause ionization and light Photographed at an altitude of kilometres on July over the USA