Upper-atmospheric lightning is not quite what it seems.

Upper-atmospheric lightning and ionospheric lightning are short-lived electrical-breakdown phenomena that occur well above the altitudes of normal lightning and storm clouds.

Upper-atmospheric lightning and ionospheric lightning are short-lived electrical-breakdown phenomena that occur well above the altitudes of normal lightning and storm clouds. Upper-atmospheric lightning is believed to be electrically induced forms of luminous plasma. The preferred scientific term is transient luminous event (TLE), because the various types of electrical-discharge phenomena in the upper atmosphere lack several characteristics of the more familiar tropospheric lightning.