藍色啟動器(Blue starters)初次發現在一段研究雷暴的夜間飛行記錄的影片中[10],它被描述成「一種與藍色噴流緊密相關的上行發光現象。[11]」它們要比一般的藍色噴流更亮但卻更短,長度通常不足20公里[12]。賓夕法尼亞州立大學的電機工程教授維克多·P·帕斯科(Victor P. Pasko)解釋道:「藍色啟動器似乎是未能成型的藍色噴流。[13]」
「淘氣精靈」得名於其英文縮寫ELVES(Emissions of Light and Very Low Frequency Perturbations from Electromagnetic Pulse Sources[21],電磁脈衝源造成的甚低頻擾動與發光現象)。此名稱闡述了發光的原理:電子碰撞導致的氮氣分子激發(電子可能通過雷暴產生的電磁脈衝獲能)。
Friedman, John. Out of the Blue: A History of Lightning. 紐約: 蘭登書屋. 2008: 128 [2015-09-17]. ISBN 978-0385341165. (原始內容存檔於2021-03-03). Dr. Davis Sentman of the University of Alaska, one of the few scientists studying these luminous, ghostlike phenomena [i.e., sprites], named the eerie flashes of colored lights after Shakespeare's mischievous spirits of the air — Ariel in The Tempest and Puck in A Midsummer Night's Dream.
Su, H. T.; Hsu, R. R.; Chen, A. B.; Wang, Y. C.; Hsiao, W. S.; Lai, W. C.; Lee, L. C.; Sato, M.; Fukunishi, H. Gigantic jets between a thundercloud and the ionosphere(PDF). Nature. 2003, 423 (6943): 974 [2009-11-29]. (原始內容(PDF)存檔於2007-07-02).
Barrington-Leigh, C. P., "Elves(頁面存檔備份,存於網際網路檔案館) : Ionospheric Heating By the Electromagnetic Pulses from Lightning (A primer)". Space Science Lab, Berkeley.