I’ve put off writing about sprites because I’m not sure I can explain what they are — powerful upward lightning flashes that send electricity around the earth and were originally going to be photographed by an astronaut on the ill-fated Columbia.
A team of scientists and a few daredevil pilots flew repeatedly into storms to prove the visions were real. The television show Nova covered the quest.
“NARRATOR: On a stormy night, in Denver, a team of scientists takes to the air to investigate a mystery.
“RONALD WILLIAMS (United States Air Force): I reported it, and nobody believed me.
“NARRATOR: They’re trying to catch a burst of energy so fleeting and hard to see that scientists call it by the ethereal name of ‘sprite.’
“EARLE WILLIAMS (Massachusetts Institute of Technology): The bolts that cause sprites are superbolts, the kind of lightning that’ll blow your T.V. sky high. …
“KERRI CAHOY (Massachusetts Institute of Technology): You can see airglow that’s more diffuse and just in layers than the curtain-like aurora.
“NARRATOR: NOVA takes to the air, on a quest to record these elusive events.
“GEOFF MCHARG (United States Air Force Academy): Sprite!
“NARRATOR: And the effort also continues above, from the vantage point of space, where the work had it’s beginning during the ill-fated Columbia mission, with Israeli astronaut Ilon Ramon.
“YOAV YAIR (The Open University of Israel): I asked him, ‘Please bring me one sprite image.’ He said, ‘Don’t worry, I’ll get you a couple.’
“NARRATOR: Ramon’s colleagues now continue where he left off.
“SATOSHI FURUKAWA (Japanese Astronaut): We must take over their work. I thought that was the survivors’ duty.
“NARRATOR: Their dramatic discoveries are revealing that we live on an electrified planet, surrounded by a global circuit that rings the earth. And like a planetary heartbeat, we can now detect it.”
Image: Nova
Suzanne's Mom's Blog 
Very intriguing! Makes me sad to think about Columbia and those astronauts, though . . . I’m glad their work is being carried on.
When the Columbia was first launched, I wrote a poem comparing it to Smaug and the one tile on his belly that made him vulnerable. It was chilling to think about that poem when the real thing happened.
Oh, my–that really is unnerving!