What are some of the high-altitude forms of lightning recently discovered, like sprites and jets?
Just as a thunderstorm can bring charge to earth through lightning, it also can send charge into the upper atmosphere above the storm. This happens through several recently discovered forms of storm electricity called sprites, elves, and blue jets. Much fainter than lightning, these phenomena are usually too dim to be seen by the naked eye, although some sprites have been observed from as far away as 400 miles (640 km). Sprites were discovered in 1989; they and their cousins have been studied in the 1990s through ground-based television cameras specially adjusted to pick up the subtle light they give off. Aircraft, satellites, and the space shuttle also have detected these features. A sprite is a large-scale but low-intensity pulse that can extend upward from the top of a thunderstorm to heights approaching 60 miles (100 kilometers). Sometimes a sprite is preceded by a short-lived, pancake-shaped area of charge called an elf that forms several dozen miles above the top of a thunderstor
