Sprites and perseids over the Czech Republic

Sprites and perseids meteor shower in the countryside near Nýdek in the Czech Republic. Although ESA’s Swarm mission did not record this particular event, the photo, taken by Martin Popek, shows how breathtaking these transient luminous events (TLEs) are. Martin first captured TLEs on 22 May 2011 and has since observed 3781 events – most of which were in 2017. The average number of TLEs per active storm is 9.87 and 11.28 per observation night. More images can be found on Martin’s webpage.

Read full story: The curious incident of Swarm and sprites in the night-time