(computer crashed twice while trying to post this, so only briefest summary here)

Look at todays apod

It’s a video and the image below shows some frames from it.
“https://farm6.staticflickr.com/5319/13943453417_b0d6b3d8dc_b.jpg”

cool

here is another sprite photo

Rare red Sprite Lightning photographed over Italy

Youtube documentary on sprites – from the imgur link

Top Documentary Films: Lightning SPRITES – Find Out What They Are?

PBS documenary Edge of Space – from the imgur link
Edge of space

could the mechanism that creates sprites be similar to solar flaring?

Postpocelipse said:

could the mechanism that creates sprites be similar to solar flaring?

Solar flaring is ionised particles flowing upwards along local magnetic field lines. There could be a similarity, but sprites seem far more complicated than that. eg. Solar flares don’t look like jellyfish.

mollwollfumble said:

Postpocelipse said:

could the mechanism that creates sprites be similar to solar flaring?

Solar flaring is ionised particles flowing upwards along local magnetic field lines. There could be a similarity, but sprites seem far more complicated than that. eg. Solar flares don’t look like jellyfish.

On the other hand, some coronal loops associated with solar flares do rain down streamers and balls of plasma a bit similar to those of sprites.

Thinking a bit further, perhaps we should look for sprites on Jupiter and Saturn, both of those have really massive lightning bolts that are far more powerful than anything on Earth. Both Jupiter and Saturn exhibit Schumann resonances similar to those of Earth’s ionosphere.