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NASA astronaut photographs rare upper-atmospheric lightning

A NASA astronaut aboard the International Space Station (ISS) has captured a spectacular photo of a rare type of upper-atmospheric lightning called a gigantic jet.

While all thunderstorms produce lightning in or around clouds in the lower levels of the atmosphere, some large thunderstorms are also capable of producing short-lived electrical manifestations that can reach tens of kilometres above the ground.

These rare upper-atmospheric lightning displays are called transient luminous events (TLEs) and they are rarely seen or captured in photographs and videos.

There are three main types of TLEs according to the World Meteorological Organization’s International Cloud Atlas:

• Sprites are red discharges that occur high above strong thunderstorms, typically at altitudes around 50 to 90km.
• Jets are columns of blue light that emerge from the top of a thunderstorm. These include blue jets, blue starters and gigantic jets.
• Elves (emissions of light and very low frequency perturbations due to electromagnetic pulse sources) are extremely short-lived disc-shaped areas of light that occur in the ionosphere. They can expand to hundreds of kilometres in diameter but typically last for less than 0.001 second.

NASA astronaut Nichole Ayres captured an image of a gigantic jet emanating from a thunderstorm on Thursday morning. The photo was taken from the ISS as it passed over Mexico and the United States.

Just. Wow. As we went over Mexico and the U.S. this morning, I caught this sprite.

Sprites are TLEs or Transient Luminous Events, that happen above the clouds and are triggered by intense electrical activity in the thunderstorms below. We have a great view above the clouds, so… pic.twitter.com/dCqIrn3vrA

— Nichole “Vapor” Ayers (@Astro_Ayers) July 3, 2025

Gigantic jets are extremely difficult to photograph because they only happen in the upper-atmosphere, are extremely short-lived and need to occur at night to be photographed clearly. This makes the ISS a perfect vantage point to capture this incredible phenomenon.

As Nichole Ayres pointed out in her X post sharing the image, these types of photos are extremely useful to help researchers understand more about the fleeting lightning that occurs in our upper-atmosphere.