Uploaded July 2021 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
Extremely active red sprite storm accompanied by multiple green ghosts. Over 100 transient luminous events were documented on this magical evening including at least six green ghosts.
SUPPORT THIS CHANNEL:
patreon.com/pecoshank
COPYRIGHT PECOS HANK LLC 2020
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
TO LICENCE FOOTAGE contact Sarah at hankschyma@gmail.com
SUPER SPRITE STORM
On May 17, 2021 an extremely unusual storm event was marinating in a very unstable Texas atmosphere. During the day, Jupiter like storm clouds brought an Alien ambiance to Earth, however for me the big show was after sunset. Hello everyone, I wanted to share the highlights of the most incredible sprite storm I’ve ever witnessed to date. Big red sprites with green ghosts, and other weird and neato captures. Also, let’s discuss what sprites really look like to the naked eye.
GREEN GHOSTS
As many of you know, Paul Smith and I discovered green ghosts in 2019. Green Ghosts are faint Aurora-like glows that seem to accompany more powerful red sprites. Paul estimated that 1 in every 500 sprites in his observations are accompanied by a detectable green ghost. On this night I captured over 100 red sprites and 6 of them were accompanied by detectable green ghosts. Some were barely noticeable but others were the brightest I’ve seen.
DANCING SPRITES
The most powerful lightning strikes, almost always positive ground flashes, are responsible for triggering sprites. Sometimes several of these big daddies connect to the ground in a very short time causing several sprites to pop above the storm in succession. We call these events dancing sprites.
PALM TREE EVENT
Another super weird thingie that occurred on this evening is what has been dubbed a palm tree event. Notice how the tendrils of almost all jellyfish sprite streamers branch downward like roots. Only one of the sprites I captured has streamers branching upward resembling a palm tree.
CAN YOU SEE RED SPRITES?
So do sprites really look like the photos you see? Can you even see them at all? Before ever catching a sprite on camera, I saw one with my naked eye. I had already accumulated numerous sprite hunting failures. Finally one dark moonless night back in 2017 I was staring over a thunderstorm to see if anything was going on and saw a little splash of white light that was unmistakably a sprite. In a crazy madness I tossed up my gear as fast as I could and caught my first sprites on camera… Nice and out of focus. Storm chaser Brenda Brown also describes seeing sprites like this. It seems the photoreceptors in our eyes at night have poorer sensitivity perceiving the dim red light, so the smaller weaker sprites appear white to us. However the big closer sprites are clearly red in person. The cameras I use to capture sprites are highly sensitive to light so the sprites turn out much more vibrant and detailed than what you would see. Also, the positive ground flash parenting a sprite is often much brighter and tends to steal our attention.
Just like with tornadoes and lightning, each sprite storm brings its own unique theme and fiery snowflake characteristics. To give you an idea of how special this night was I’ve created a time lapse of all the transient Luminous events and weirdo things I captured that evening. See if you can see the ghosts.
With the help of several scientists and other TLE fanatics, Paul Smith and I made a video explaining how sprites form and how we discovered green ghosts. I’ll hook you up with that link.
Thanks for watching everyone
Hank Schyma
Music: by Pecos Hank
Extremely active red sprite storm accompanied by multiple green ghosts. Over 100 transient luminous events were documented on this magical evening including at least six green ghosts.
SUPPORT THIS CHANNEL:
patreon.com/pecoshank
COPYRIGHT PECOS HANK LLC 2020
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
TO LICENCE FOOTAGE contact Sarah at hankschyma@gmail.com
SUPER SPRITE STORM
On May 17, 2021 an extremely unusual storm event was marinating in a very unstable Texas atmosphere. During the day, Jupiter like storm clouds brought an Alien ambiance to Earth, however for me the big show was after sunset. Hello everyone, I wanted to share the highlights of the most incredible sprite storm I’ve ever witnessed to date. Big red sprites with green ghosts, and other weird and neato captures. Also, let’s discuss what sprites really look like to the naked eye.
GREEN GHOSTS
As many of you know, Paul Smith and I discovered green ghosts in 2019. Green Ghosts are faint Aurora-like glows that seem to accompany more powerful red sprites. Paul estimated that 1 in every 500 sprites in his observations are accompanied by a detectable green ghost. On this night I captured over 100 red sprites and 6 of them were accompanied by detectable green ghosts. Some were barely noticeable but others were the brightest I’ve seen.
DANCING SPRITES
The most powerful lightning strikes, almost always positive ground flashes, are responsible for triggering sprites. Sometimes several of these big daddies connect to the ground in a very short time causing several sprites to pop above the storm in succession. We call these events dancing sprites.
PALM TREE EVENT
Another super weird thingie that occurred on this evening is what has been dubbed a palm tree event. Notice how the tendrils of almost all jellyfish sprite streamers branch downward like roots. Only one of the sprites I captured has streamers branching upward resembling a palm tree.
CAN YOU SEE RED SPRITES?
So do sprites really look like the photos you see? Can you even see them at all? Before ever catching a sprite on camera, I saw one with my naked eye. I had already accumulated numerous sprite hunting failures. Finally one dark moonless night back in 2017 I was staring over a thunderstorm to see if anything was going on and saw a little splash of white light that was unmistakably a sprite. In a crazy madness I tossed up my gear as fast as I could and caught my first sprites on camera… Nice and out of focus. Storm chaser Brenda Brown also describes seeing sprites like this. It seems the photoreceptors in our eyes at night have poorer sensitivity perceiving the dim red light, so the smaller weaker sprites appear white to us. However the big closer sprites are clearly red in person. The cameras I use to capture sprites are highly sensitive to light so the sprites turn out much more vibrant and detailed than what you would see. Also, the positive ground flash parenting a sprite is often much brighter and tends to steal our attention.
Just like with tornadoes and lightning, each sprite storm brings its own unique theme and fiery snowflake characteristics. To give you an idea of how special this night was I’ve created a time lapse of all the transient Luminous events and weirdo things I captured that evening. See if you can see the ghosts.
With the help of several scientists and other TLE fanatics, Paul Smith and I made a video explaining how sprites form and how we discovered green ghosts. I’ll hook you up with that link.
Thanks for watching everyone
Hank Schyma
Music: by Pecos Hank
