A study of the possibility of sprites in the atmospheres of other planets

TL;DR

This paper explores the theoretical possibility of sprites occurring in the atmospheres of Venus, Titan, and Jupiter, analyzing their potential emission features and detection prospects via spacecraft.

Contribution

It provides the first theoretical calculations of sprite occurrence heights and emission spectra in non-Earth planetary atmospheres.

Findings

Sprites could occur in Venus, Titan, and Jupiter atmospheres.

Expected emission features vary with atmospheric composition.

Detection of planetary sprites is potentially feasible with orbiting spacecraft.

Abstract

Sprites are a spectacular type of transient luminous events (TLE) which occur above thunderstorms immediately after lightning. They have shapes of giant jellyfish, carrots or columns and last tens of milliseconds. In Earth's atmosphere, sprites mostly emit in red and blue wavelengths from excited N2 and N2+ and span a vertical range between 50 and 90 km above the surface. The emission spectra, morphology and occurrence heights of sprites reflect the properties of the planetary atmosphere they inhabit and are related to the intensity of the initiating parent lightning.. This paper presents results of theoretical calculations of the expected occurrence heights of sprites above lightning discharges in the CO2 atmosphere of Venus, the N2 atmosphere of Titan and the H2-He atmosphere of Jupiter. The expected emission features are presented and the potential of detecting sprites in planetary atmospheres by orbiting spacecraft is discussed.