Pilot Brian Whittaker spent thousands of hours flying to London from the United States, during which time he saw many wonders of the night sky through the glass of the cockpit. But it wasn't until recently that he finally photographed his first sprite.
Whittaker said he was on a flight from Las Vegas to London on June 16 when the plane flew past several very active storm clouds. He watched many quick flashes of lightning - when suddenly a sprite appeared from one cloud.
The green stripes in Whittaker's image are not auroras, but rather airy glow. The glow of the air is caused by a variety of chemical reactions in the upper atmosphere of the Earth. These reactions begin during daylight hours, when the atmosphere is literally "bathed" in strong UV radiation from the Sun. The air glow occurs just above the sprite height. Whittaker noted that sprites do appear at high altitudes and suggested that he could have missed many "cosmic lightning" over the years simply because his camera was set too low.
Summer is the season of sprites and a good time for photographers to direct their optics to the area above the tops of storm clouds.