Overview

• Scientists confirmed that Ayers’ July 3 photograph captured both a classic red sprite and a rarer gigantic jet over Mexico and the United States.
• The 120 fps imagery from the ISS Cupola provides unprecedented detail on transient luminous event morphology and the electrical triggers at altitudes of 50–90 km.
• Sprites manifest milliseconds after intense lightning strikes as brief red flashes with plume and tendril shapes that have remained poorly understood for decades.
• NASA’s Spritacular citizen-science initiative has enlisted more than 800 volunteers to submit ground-based photos, yielding over 360 confirmed sprite events across 21 countries to complement space-borne data.
• Combined observations from the ISS, instruments like the ASIM payload, and public contributions are refining occurrence rates and advancing research into upper-atmosphere electrical discharges.