Overview

• On July 3, astronaut Nichole Ayers aboard the ISS photographed a transient luminous event over Mexico and the U.S. Southwest that she later confirmed to be a gigantic jet rather than a red sprite.
• Ayers’s image and accompanying sprite data have been integrated into the Spritacular citizen-science database, which has amassed hundreds of volunteer observations since its 2022 launch.
• Researchers are analyzing space-based imagery alongside ground-based reports and data from the ISS’s Atmosphere-Space Interactions Monitor to explore how TLEs are generated.
• Gigantic jets are powerful upward lightning discharges that connect thunderstorm tops to the ionosphere and remain among Earth’s least understood electrical phenomena.
• The convergence of ISS photography, crowdsourced observations and specialized instruments is expanding the dataset scientists use to unravel the mysteries of high-altitude lightning events.