Chasing Sprites in Electric Skies

Paul Smith is a night-sky fanatic and photographer. His obsession is sprites: immense jolts of light that flicker high above thunderstorms. Last October, he guided NASA scientist Dr. Burcu Kosar through the backroads of Oklahoma to catch one herself. Although she’d studied sprites for more than 15 years, she hadn’t yet chased one.

Read more about chasing sprites with Paul and Burcu: https://blogs.nasa.gov/sunspot/2022/1...

Learn about NASA’s citizen science project Spritacular: https://www.nasa.gov/feature/goddard/...

Learn about the Heliophysics Big Year: https://solarsystem.nasa.gov/solar-sy...

Image credits: Paul Smith, Frankie Lucena, Panagiotis Tsouras, Thomas Ashcraft. All imagery of sprites is copyrighted and used with permission.

Music credits: “The Beauty Beyond” by Jeremy Noel William Abbott [PRS], Vasco [PRS]; “Outer Orbit” by Alexander Ryder Mcnair [ASCAP], Harry Gregson Williams [BMI], Ho Ling Tang [BMI]; “Wonderful Orbit” by Tom Furse Fairfax Cowan [PRS]; “Starlights” by Marc Teitler [PRS], Vasco [PRS]; “A Tranquil End” by Luke Gordon [PRS]; “Virtual Tidings” by Andrew Michael Britton [PRS], David Stephen Goldsmith [PRS]; “Winter Aurora” by Samuel Karl Bohn [PRS]; “Lava Flow” and “Water Dance” by Ben Niblett [PRS], Jon Cotton [PRS].

Credit: NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center
Producer: Joy Ng (KBRwyle)
Scientist: Burcu Kosar (Catholic University of America)
Photographer: Paul Smith
Photographer: Frankie Lucena
Photographer: Panagiotis Tsouras
Photographer: Thomas Ashcraft
Videographer: Joy Ng, Thomas Smith
Writer: Lina Tran