The photo, titled Cosmic Fireworks, won the Skyscapes category of the 2023 Astronomy Photographer of the Year competition, hosted by the Royal Observatory Greenwich. This breathtaking image not only showcases the awe-inspiring beauty of sprite discharges but also sparks public interest in extreme weather phenomena and their scientific significance. (Credit: Angel An)
In a nutshell
- Photographers in Tibet captured 105 red sprites above a single thunderstorm in South Asia—the highest number ever recorded in the region.
- Using star and satellite positions, scientists determined exactly when each sprite occurred, linking 70% of them to powerful positive lightning strikes.
- The study documented extremely rare “ghost” emissions for the first time in Asia, advancing our understanding of how different atmospheric layers connect.
HEFEI, China — On a beautiful night in May 2022, two astrophotographers camping near Lake Puma Yumco in Tibet witnessed something extraordinary after thunderclouds filled the once-clear skies overhead. As they pointed their cameras toward the heavens, they captured a spectacular series of fleeting red flashes illuminating the heavens above South Asia. These weren’t alien visitors or secret military tests, but rare atmospheric phenomena called “red sprites” – brief electrical discharges that happen high above thunderstorms, seldom seen and even more rarely photographed in such numbers.
The photographers documented an astonishing 105 red sprites over a single thunderstorm – the most ever recorded over South Asia. Nearly half of these sprites exhibited complex “dancing” behavior, where multiple flashes seem to jump between different locations. Even more remarkably, they captured 16 unusual “secondary jets” and at least four incredibly rare green emissions known as “ghosts,” which scientists have only recently confirmed as legitimate atmospheric events.
In a paper published in Advances in Atmospheric Sciences, researchers from the University of Science and Technology of China studied this accidental discovery. Their work sheds light on how the atmosphere behaves above one of Earth’s most meteorologically dynamic regions – the boundary between the towering Tibetan Plateau and the humid plains of South Asia.
Dancing Lights in the Upper Atmosphere
Red sprites belong to a category scientists call Transient Luminous Events (TLEs). Unlike normal lightning that strikes downward from clouds to ground, red sprites flash upward from the tops of thunderclouds toward space, reaching heights of 50 to 90 kilometers above Earth. They appear red because nitrogen molecules in the thin upper atmosphere emit this color when electrically stimulated. Most sprites last only milliseconds, making them almost impossible to spot with the naked eye.
The research team carefully analyzed two original videos showing 95 distinct sprite events, including 33 individual red sprites, 47 dancing sprites, and 15 secondary gigantic jets. Using innovative timing methods, they linked approximately 70% of these sprites to extremely powerful lightning strikes, mainly positive-polarity bolts with peak currents exceeding +50 kiloamperes, occurring in what meteorologists call the “stratiform region” of a massive thunderstorm complex.
The Tibetan Plateau, often called Earth’s “Third Pole” because of its extensive ice reserves, creates ideal conditions for viewing these atmospheric displays. With an average height exceeding 4,000 meters above sea level, the plateau gives observers a clear vantage point above the lower, denser parts of the atmosphere. The photographers’ campsite near Lake Puma Yumco sits approximately 5,000 meters above sea level, allowing an unobstructed view of electrical activity occurring over the plains below.
A Monster Storm and Astronomical Detective Work
The thunderstorm that spawned these sprites was enormous – a weather system spanning from the Ganges Plain to the southern foothills of the Tibetan Plateau. Scientists classified it as a mesoscale convective complex (MCC), covering more than 200,000 square kilometers – roughly the size of Nebraska – with cloud tops reaching temperatures near -93°C. These extremely cold cloud tops indicate massive columns of air stretching upward toward the edge of space.
Studying sprites presents unique challenges because they happen so quickly and unpredictably. Since the original videos lacked exact timestamps, researchers used the positions of stars and satellites visible in the background to reconstruct when each frame was recorded. By comparing the angle between satellite paths and nearby bright stars in the videos with computer models of satellite orbits, they determined the timing of each sprite observation to within less than one second.
This astronomical detective work allowed them to identify the parent lightning bolts for 66 of the 95 sprites captured in the videos. Almost all these parent lightning strikes were positive-polarity – the less common and more powerful type that makes up only about 10% of all cloud-to-ground lightning worldwide.
Rare Ghosts and Atmospheric Connections
Among the most intriguing findings were the rare “ghost” emissions – greenish flashes observed following four of the sprites. These ghosts appeared at heights of approximately 73-86 kilometers, in the upper diffuse region of the preceding sprite. According to the researchers, these are the first ghost observations recorded in Asia, and possibly the clearest documented examples of this phenomenon to date.
The atmospheric conditions that created this sprite outbreak were exceptional. The thunderstorm formed when warm, moist air from the Indian Ocean collided with cooler, drier air at higher elevations. Weather balloon measurements revealed extremely high readings indicating severe atmospheric instability. Combined with moderate vertical wind shear and a high freezing level at 4.4 kilometers above sea level, these conditions set the stage for powerful, electrically active storms.
This research advances our understanding of how different layers of Earth’s atmosphere connect. While scientists have extensively studied ground-to-lower atmosphere connections and upper atmosphere-to-space interactions, the middle atmosphere – where sprites occur – remains somewhat mysterious.
The Future of Sprite Research
According to news reports from India, the same thunderstorm that produced this spectacular sprite display also caused 33 deaths and extensive property damage through hailstones, strong winds, and heavy rain. This tragic outcome demonstrates the tremendous energy contained in these weather systems and emphasizes why better understanding them matters for improving forecasts and public safety.
The observation of so many sprites from the Tibetan Plateau suggests this elevated region could serve as an exceptional natural laboratory for studying electrical phenomena in the upper atmosphere. Despite their visual drama, sprites remain relatively poorly understood compared to conventional lightning, and each new observation helps scientists piece together how Earth’s electrical circuit functions from the ground to the edge of space.
“This event was truly remarkable,” said lead researcher Professor Gaopeng Lu, in a statement. “By analyzing the parent lightning discharges, we discovered that the sprites were triggered by high-peak current positive cloud-to-ground lightning strikes within a massive mesoscale convective system. This suggests that thunderstorms in the Himalayan region have the potential to produce some of the most complex and intense upper-atmospheric electrical discharges on Earth.”
As climate change shifts precipitation patterns and potentially increases the frequency and intensity of severe thunderstorms in many regions, understanding phenomena like sprites becomes increasingly relevant. These fleeting red flashes in the sky – once dismissed as pilot hallucinations until the first scientific photograph was taken in 1989 – have much to teach us about the complex electrical relationships between Earth and space.
Paper Summary
The Methodology
The researchers tackled an unusual challenge in this study: working with amateur photographs and videos lacking the precise timing information needed to connect sprite observations with specific lightning strikes. To overcome this obstacle, they developed a two-step method using astronomical data. First, they compared constellation positions and landscape features in the video frames with star field software to estimate approximate timing. Then, they refined this timing by tracking low Earth orbit satellites visible in the video backgrounds. By measuring angles between satellite tracks and nearby bright stars and comparing these with computer models of satellite orbits, they achieved timing accuracy within 500 milliseconds. This allowed them to sync sprite observations with data from two lightning detection networks: the World-Wide Lightning Location Network (WWLLN) and the Global Lightning Detection Network (GLD360). The team also analyzed cloud-top brightness temperature data from the Japanese Himawari-8 satellite to characterize the thunderstorm, alongside ERA5 reanalysis data and weather balloon measurements to understand atmospheric conditions.
The Results
The study documented 105 red sprites over South Asia during a roughly three-hour window on May 19, 2022. Researchers identified 95 sprites in two videos, including 33 individual red sprites, 47 dancing sprites, and 15 secondary gigantic jets. Using their timing method, they linked 66 sprites (about 70% of the total) to specific lightning strokes. Almost all sprite-producing lightning was positive-polarity with peak currents exceeding +50 kiloamperes, occurring in the stratiform region of a massive mesoscale convective complex. The thunderstorm covered over 200,000 square kilometers with minimum cloud-top temperatures near 180 Kelvin. Notably, the team documented four extremely rare “ghost” emissions—greenish flashes at altitudes of 73-86 kilometers following sprite activity. During peak periods, the sprite production rate reached 1.06 sprites per minute, comparable to sprite outbreaks in North America and slightly lower than rates seen in South America.
The Limitations
Several limitations affected this study’s data collection and analysis. The amateur nature of the observations meant the original videos lacked exact timing information, requiring an indirect timing method with potential error margins up to one second. Despite their innovative approach, researchers could identify parent lightning for only 70% of observed sprites, leaving 30% without confirmed triggering events. Observations were also restricted to the cameras’ field of view, potentially missing sprites elsewhere above the same storm. Furthermore, half-hour gaps existed between the two videos, during which additional sprites likely occurred but weren’t captured. Finally, cloud cover eventually blocked observations, ending data collection while the storm remained active, suggesting the total sprite count from this storm likely exceeded the documented 105.
Discussion and Takeaways
This research establishes that thunderstorms in South Asia, particularly those between the Tibetan Plateau and Ganges Plain, can generate numerous complex sprites similar to those seen over the U.S. Great Plains or European coastal regions. This fills a geographic gap in sprite research, as few ground-based sprite observations had previously come from South Asia despite satellite data indicating the region’s sprite potential. The study also highlights the Tibetan Plateau as a potentially exceptional location for studying upper atmospheric electrical phenomena, thanks to its elevation providing clear views above the lower atmosphere. By documenting rare secondary jets and ghosts, the research adds valuable data to the limited global inventory of these events. Perhaps most importantly, the study enhances our knowledge of connections between different atmospheric layers, specifically how energy from thunderstorms affects the mesosphere and lower ionosphere, with implications for regional and global atmospheric dynamics.
Funding and Disclosures
The research received support from multiple Chinese scientific institutions, including the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 42394122), CAS Project of Stable Support for Youth Team in Basic Research Field (YSRR-018), the National Key R&D Program of China (2023YFC3007703), the Chinese Meridian Project, and the International Partnership Program of Chinese Academy of Sciences (183311KYSB20200003). The researchers thanked photographers Angel An and Shuchang Dong for providing the original video footage, as well as the World-Wide Lightning Location Network and Vaisala Inc. for supplying lightning detection data.
Publication Information
The study, “Massive Outbreak of Red Sprites in South Asia Observed from the Tibetan Plateau,” was authored by Hailiang Huang, Gaopeng Lu, Angel An, Di Xu, Zhengwei Cheng, Yongping Wang, Yazhou Chen, and Xin Huang. It appeared in Advances in Atmospheric Sciences in 2025. The paper was received on April 22, 2024, revised on September 23, 2024, and accepted on October 8, 2024. Full citation: Huang, H. L., G. P. Lu, A. An, D. Xu, Z. W. Cheng, Y. P. Wang, Y. Z. Chen, and X. Huang, 2025: Massive outbreak of red sprites in South Asia observed from the Tibetan Plateau. Adv. Atmos. Sci., https://doi.org/10.1007/s00376-024-4143-5.
