16-17 and 17-18 December 2007: Sprites & Elves

A bubble of cold air at mid tropospheric levels swung around the large high pressure area over the European mainland and settled over the western Mediterranean Sea. The wintery thundershowers that resulted created a variety of Transient Luminous Events (TLE): about 34 during the first night, 23 during the second night as recorded by the camera just north of the Pyrenees.
Some sprites were so small that the software only triggered on the lightning flash, and thus one may expect these would otherwise be missed.

16-17 December events:

• Halo only: 3
• Elve: 7
• Sprite (normal): 17
• Sprite (otherwise undetected): 7

Here are some images:

Halo inside:
Elve:
Another big event with a halo inside:

17-18 December events:

• Halo only: 1 (but several simultaneous with sprites)
• Elve: 6
• Sprite (normal): 16

A circular group of columns:

Another elve, with slightly irregular patterns of luminosity:

One from my balcony in Toulouse (camera set up only very late). Unfortunately outside the view of the camera at Lannemezan. My camera gives a less noisy but also less bright image because the gain is manually controlled and here I used also gamma=off.

The Eurosprite Team wishes you a Merry Christmas
and a Very Happy 2008!