Astronauts Capture Rare Lightning Phenomena 55 Miles Above Earth

Hidden Electric Fireworks Above the Storms

Far above Earth's familiar thunderstorms, astronauts aboard the International Space Station are witnessing electric phenomena that most people never see. While most people witness only the familiar crack of thunder and flash of lightning from storms on Earth, brilliantly-colorful electric fireworks detonate much higher, in the thin air up to 55 miles overhead, easily seen from the ISS. These brief spectacles – blue jets, red sprites, violet halos, ultraviolet rings – are collectively known as transient luminous events, or TLEs.

Originally thought to be a sprite, Ayers confirmed catching an even rarer form of a Transient Luminous Events (TLEs) — a gigantic jet. "Nichole Ayers caught a rare and spectacular form of a TLE from the International Space Station — a gigantic jet," said Dr. Burcu Kosar, Principal Investigator of the Spritacular project. Gigantic jets are a powerful type of electrical discharge that extends from the top of a thunderstorm into the upper atmosphere. The brief flashes – glowing red, blue and violet – appear high above thunderstorms and last only milliseconds, but from orbit they look like surreal fireworks lighting up the edge of space.

For decades, they eluded systematic study, appearing only in pilots' anecdotes and the occasional lucky photograph. The International Space Station (ISS) has changed that by offering an unobstructed seat above the storms, where specialized cameras and sensors capture every fleeting spark.

Cutting-Edge Technology Reveals the Invisible

One of the main tools responsible for these discoveries is the Atmosphere–Space Interactions Monitor (ASIM), a European Space Agency instrument attached to the outside of the space station since 2018. ASIM was built specifically to observe lightning and other electrical events from space. Its high-speed cameras and sensors are sensitive enough to detect flashes smaller than a fingernail and lasting only a fraction of a second.

Through ESA's Thor-Davis experiment, ISS crewmembers attach a state-of-the-art camera behind the glass and capture distant storms at up to one hundred thousand frames per second. NASA astronaut Nichole Ayers demonstrated the incredible precision required when she explained, "The photos are taken at 120 frames per second, and the flashes you see only last one frame. Fast and furious, but also an incredible sight!"

Researchers are also investigating another unusual phenomenon linked to storms, terrestrial gamma-ray flashes, bursts of radiation associated with lightning. To detect them, the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) launched a small satellite called Light-1 from the ISS. Despite its compact size, the CubeSat carries detectors capable of identifying high-energy photons produced during these events.

Real-World Impact Beyond the Spectacle

Piece by piece, researchers are discovering that what happens in this hidden layer can rattle radio transmissions, affect aircraft safety, and even tweak the chemistry of the upper atmosphere. Its observations have already revealed how lightning at the tops of storm clouds can release electromagnetic energy into the ionosphere, creating ELVES. These rings can spread across hundreds of miles and alter the electrical charge of the upper atmosphere, a process that scientists are still trying to fully understand.

Storm observations from space station help scientists study Earth's upper atmosphere, which can improve weather models and protect communication systems and aircraft. The practical applications extend far beyond scientific curiosity, as these electrical events can disrupt satellite communications and pose risks to aviation.

The Future of Storm Science

Scientists hope that combining observations from the ISS, orbiting satellites and ground-based lightning networks will gradually build a detailed map of where these rare atmospheric flashes occur and how they influence the delicate electrical balance of the upper atmosphere. CubeSats like Light-1 could multiply into a fleet, feeding real-time alerts to weather agencies and satellite operators whenever a gamma flash or mega-sprite erupts.

Above all, the space station shows that to grasp Earth's weather, one must sometimes look down from above. Each orbit adds a few more frames to lightning's hidden movie reel. Those frames bring us closer to predicting – and perhaps mitigating – the electrical surprises that storms fling toward the edge of space. As technology advances and more satellites join the observation network, these once-mythical phenomena may soon become powerful tools for understanding and forecasting our planet's most dramatic weather systems.