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Letter

Nature Geoscience 2, 757–760 (1 November 2009) | doi:10.1038/ngeo662

Emergence of sprite streamers from screening-ionization waves in the lower ionosphere

Alejandro Luque & Ute Ebert

Sprite discharges above thunderclouds at altitudes of 40–90|[thinsp]|km (refs|[nbsp]|1, 2, 3, 4, 5) are usually created by a strong positive cloud-to-ground lightning flash. Sometimes these sprite discharges emerge from a visible halo, and during the first stage they always propagate downwards and branch on their way.