<p>In this seminar, two new models will be presented. The first new model is a first-principles description of the propagation of light in a cloud, based on a classical solution to Maxwell's equations rather than radiative transfer theory. The second new model is a fully three-dimensional, time-dependent model of the regions of possible sprite inception in the mesosphere, based on the classical method of images from electrostatics rather than finite differencing in space. The reason why each model is unique, the problems each model can solve, and the kinds of results each model can produce will be discussed</p>