Huge jellyfish sprite in the skies over the Caribbean Sea
© Vimeo/Frankie Lucena (screen capture)Huge jellyfish sprite in the skies over the Caribbean Sea
On September 18, 2016, Frankie Lucena of Cabo Rojo, Puerto Rico, photographed an enormous 'A-bomb' sprite over the Caribbean Sea. These rank as the largest type of sprite in both horizontal and vertical dimensions. And for a split-second, the sky lit up like this:

A-bomb sprite over Caribbean Sea
© Frankie Lucena
This type of sprite is often called 'jellyfish' or 'A-bomb,' and ranks as the largest type of sprite in both horizontal and vertical dimensions.

It consists of a bright halo approximately 85 km above Earth's surface surrounding sprite elements with long tendrils reaching down as low as ~30 km above ground level.

This kind of sprite tends to be triggered by a very impulsive positive cloud-to-ground flash.

But curiously, Lucena did not observe an instigating lightning bolt, but, Instead, just before the sprite appeared, he recorded a bright point-like flash of light. Was it a cosmic ray hitting the camera?.


Or was the point-like flash a cloud-to-ground strike mostly eclipsed by intervening clouds?

Did Lucena photograph something new triggering a sprite? There is still much to learn in this mysterious field.