There are more questions about sprites to answer. For example:
How often do sprites happen on this planet? Where do sprites occur? How strong are sprites?

To answer these simple questions, we can catch sprites with their radio signals. Yes, sprites are similar to radio broadcasting and TV stations, which transmit invisible waves to our homes. With very sensitive radio antennas, we can detect sprites over very long distances. Putting a number of radio antennas in some foreign countries, it is possible to detect sprites all around the world.

Once we know the global sprite population, it will be possible to look in great detail at the very unusual properties of sprites. For example, Sprites are often associated with thunder, but it can not be heard by us. Is the thunder really produced by sprites or is there something else going on? The sun heats the atmosphere at 100 km height, where sprites do end. Can it be that the ever changing sun affects the global sprite population? Sprites may be also able to produce X-rays. Yes, the same X-rays which are used in medicine to look through your body. But nobody ever detected X-rays from sprites yet. Scientists hope that by answering such questions they would know much more about and understand better what happens in the atmosphere.

If you want to search for sprites yourself, no problem: Ask your physics teacher. Many school kids around the planet are now starting to mount video cameras on the roofs of their schools to watch out for sprites during the night. They run computer software across the video images to detect sprites automatically and report to researchers, which is really a cool thing to do.

Martin