Around the world, people are noticing strange red bursts of light that resemble lighting in the sky. Earlier this month the bursts were spotted in Southwest China's Guiyang, the capital of Guizhou province.

They're known as "red sprites" and are a weather phenomena caused by high-altitude electrical discharges. 

In 2019, storm photographer Scott Currens recorded a brilliant Red Sprite over a thunderstorm in central Kansas, it was so powerful it produced an aurora-like green afterglow that some people have called a "green ghost".

They've even been spotted in space. In 2015, a crew member of the International Space Station got an image of a red sprite over Dallas, Texas. 

Just a few minutes later, a crew member on the ISS saw another red sprite near the El Salvador coast.

Some have dubbed the sprites "red lightning", but they're actually not thermal at all. They are a cold plasma phenomenon similar to the discharge in a fluorescent light.

Sprites are common occurrances, but are hard to see because they are so quick and they take place above thunderstorms and are usually blocked from view on the ground.

They have been written about as early as 1730 by historian Johann Georg Estor in Germany, but were not first photographed until 1989 by scientists at the University of Minnesota with a low-light camera.

Since then they've been spotted in many locations. The best way to see them on earth is from the distance and from high mountains if the storm is taking place on a lower plain.

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