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Sprites, I saw them on a documentary once and

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I kind of became fascinated with them.

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I've been trying to capture them for a while.

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So it's kind of all snowballed into a semi-obsession.

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Woah! Ha ha ha.

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[Paul] Woah! [Paul's son] I saw that one too.

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[Paul's son] I saw that one!

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[Paul] You saw that red one? Yeah! Ha ha! I can’t wait to look at that one again.

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My name’s Paul Smith and I'm a sprite chaser,

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which means I like to photograph the night sky and sprites in particular.

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They look like to the naked eye you would probably see them as flashes above thunderstorms.

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And then the camera picks up more of the colors

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— nice red, orange, sometimes purple colors. 

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I would say the region of space above the thunderstorms is almost like an electrical zoo.

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We have these collection of electrical activity

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we have blue jets, gigantic jets, trolls, halos.

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It's almost like an electric fairy tale.

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Sprites is just one of many. Collectively, these transient luminous events.

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Sprites are like snowflakes. They come in various shapes and sizes

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so we call them angel sprites, carrot sprites, column sprites.

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They're just beautiful to look at

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and just the fact that no sprite is identical to the other is good enough reason to study them

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and look at them all day long. You're never gonna get bored.

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So sprites are very large scale events.

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Their width is usually up to five to 10 kilometers

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and their vertical extent is about 40 or 50 kilometers.

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You can almost fit a small town in there.

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Because these sprites are very large scale events,

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they change the atmospheric composition and we don’t know the extent of this effect.

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So it's important to study them in the long run.

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It's just a real cool thing to be able to shoot and see these things

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that nobody else is really getting on a regular basis.

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I saw their phenomenal images and I wanted to work with them

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and leverage their images and data collection.

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And it sparked this idea in my head what if I created a citizen science project

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that I can connect the public with the scientific community

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so we can further our understanding together.

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With this new citizen science project our goal is to create the first ever comprehensive database of sprites.

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I’m very excited about this.

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I know there are a lot of people out there who are naturally chasing sprites,

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so I'm asking all sprite chasers to submit their images to us.

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It’s like a puzzle — they provide one piece, we provide the other and we solve it together.

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With this citizen science project, I'm just really excited to think that

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finally we'll have a connection because I've been getting these sprites for so long

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and I got a bunch sitting on my hard drive that nobody's really dissected or looked at.

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So I think this will be a good bridge for that.

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So there’s a chance for storms so — and sprites — so let’s get to it.

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I've been studying sprites for 15 years and I have not seen them in person

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and I am super excited about the opportunity to go chasing with Paul

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I haven’t met him before and I’m going to be meeting him soon so we’re going to go capture some sprites. 

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[Burcu] Hi Paul, hi! It’s so nice to meet you!

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[Paul] You too. I’m doing great. Awesome.

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[Burcu] Let’s have a fist bump. So, what’s our plan today? Where are we heading?

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[Paul] Well we’ve got some storms in over in Akasansas and Mississippi

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that will be in range if we head down to southeast Oklahoma.

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[Burcu] Okay, let’s go sprite chasing!

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[Paul] Let’s go!

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So the best places to catch sprites are where you've got big lightning strikes.

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We’re heading to a lake in a dark sky area of southeast Oklahoma. 

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So when you look at the radar, we are mostly looking for those regions that have red cells

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and the system was evolving to be able to form some powerful flashes,

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hich we need for the sprites tonight. So, it’s looking good.

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[Burcu] Hey Paul, so what other tips you have for sprite chasing?

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[Paul] I always try to look for really dark skies.

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Maybe at first look on Google Maps and just see... find areas without any development nearby.

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[GPS: In a quarter mile, keep left on the fork. Follow signs for Daisy]

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[Burcu] Okay, yeah. It looks pretty open here.

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[Paul] Yeah, that’s the direction we’re looking. Perfect.

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Where the storm was on the map, I just lined us up on Google Earth to like a landmark.

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I can see the point, this point of the bridge here. 


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So yeah, we are right now in Oklahoma,

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but the storm we’re looking at is over in Mississippi, Alabama state border

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and that’s pretty far out. We’re talking about 375 miles. It’s pretty far out. 

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When I look at the screen, I’m pretty much scanning the horizon here

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because the storms are pretty far out

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and I will be able to just see the lightning flash the top of the cloud tops, pretty much that light. 

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That’s my clue to trigger and that’s when I press the button

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and I don’t see the sprite until I actually replay that little capture.

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And I’m hoping that I actually captured something.

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[Paul] I’m kind of thinking because if you don’t... if I don’t see something in...

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[Paul] Oh.. there was a sprite!

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[Burcu] Seriously? And then the moment I just turn my head! Seriously!

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[Paul] There’s a sprite guys! 

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[Burcu] Let’s see.

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[Paul] I hope I caught it on time.

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[Burcu] Oh my gosh.

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[Burcu] Yes! We have one! Oh my god, that’s awesome! And that was actually pretty close.

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[Paul] Pretty close!

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[Burcu] High fives! High fives! We did it!

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[Burcu] Oh. Perfect. I think we got one. Awesome.

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[Burcu] And I think that was a column sprite.

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[Burcu] It’s right there. We actually captured sprites!

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I keep replaying this. This is amazing!

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Yeah, that’s why... now I understand why you don’t want to leave once you have one capture.

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This is all what science is about.

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It’s just this excitement and trying to understand how they’re formed

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and what makes them look the way they are.

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It’s just amazing and a highlight of my career. 

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This citizen science project, I think that's it's going to be our best bet

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for figuring out actually what's going on with these sprites.

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And that's exciting to think that might happen in my lifetime

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and if it doesn’t, I’d be pretty disappointed. 

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