A US astronaut aboard the International Space Station (ISS) recently caught a glimpse of one of Earth’s least understood atmospheric phenomena. While orbiting in the early hours of July 3, Nichole “Vapor” Ayers snapped a photo of a transient luminous event, as she passed over North America. Better known as a sprite, these atmospheric events are common after a lightning strike. Sprites are TLEs or Transient Luminous Events, that happen above the clouds and are triggered by intense electrical activity in the thunderstorms below. If a storm cell is particularly powerful, it can also create the perfect conditions for transient luminous events, more commonly known as sprites.