Red Sprites Above the U.S. and Central America

Within three minutes, astronauts acquired two photographs of elusive red sprite emissions above thunderstorms.

Astronaut photographs ISS044-E-45553 and ISS044-E-45576 were acquired on August 10, 2015, with a Nikon D4 digital camera using a 28 millimeter lens, and are provided by the ISS Crew Earth Observations Facility and the Earth Science and Remote Sensing Unit, Johnson Space Center. The images were taken by a member of the Expedition 44 crew. The images have been cropped and enhanced to improve contrast, and lens artifacts have been removed. The International Space Station Program supports the laboratory as part of the ISS National Lab to help astronauts take pictures of Earth that will be of the greatest value to scientists and the public, and to make those images freely available on the Internet. Additional images taken by astronauts and cosmonauts can be viewed at the NASA/JSC Gateway to Astronaut Photography of Earth. Caption by M. Justin Wilkinson, Texas State University, Jacobs Contract at NASA-JSC.

Published August 24, 2015
Data acquired August 10, 2015

Source:

ISS > Digital Camera

Collection:

Astronaut Photography