Atmospheric scientist Oscar van der Velde, standing on his balcony in Barcelona, Spain, captured the sprite in spectacular detail on the night of June 5. He was  150 miles away from the storm.

"It was the sixth sprite that night that I could capture, and the second one at this zoom level," said van der Velde, of the Technical University of Catalonia. "This type of sprite is often called a 'carrot.'"