A photographer has successfully captured one of nature's most elusive atmospheric phenomena - a brilliant red halo known as an "elve" that appeared above the Italian Alps. This extraordinary natural light display, which lasted less than a thousandth of a second, was photographed expanding nearly 300 miles across the sky following a powerful lightning strike. The rare occurrence represents one of the most mysterious events in atmospheric science, characterized by its enormous scale and incredibly brief yet intense burst of energy.
An elve belongs to a category called transient luminous events (TLE), which also includes sprites and jets. These spectacular flashes occur high above thunderstorms in Earth's upper atmosphere, specifically in the ionosphere. According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), these luminous bursts result from powerful lightning strikes that send electromagnetic pulses (EMP) shooting upward into the ionosphere. The electromagnetic energy creates sudden, brief flashes of light that can span hundreds of miles across the sky.
The extreme brevity of elves makes them incredibly challenging to photograph, as the entire event occurs in less than a thousandth of a second. In this particular case, photographer Valter Binotto captured the stunning red halo when a particularly strong negative lightning strike generated an EMP that illuminated the ionosphere. "The ELVE was generated by a powerful negative lightning strike in a storm in Vernazza about 300 km south of me," Binotto explained to Spaceweather.com.
Binotto photographed this remarkable elve on March 23, 2023, from his home in Possagno, Italy. Interestingly, he wasn't specifically hunting for elves when he captured this incredible shot. Instead, he had positioned himself to photograph sprites, another type of atmospheric phenomenon that consists of brief, faint electrical discharges appearing above thunderstorms. Sprites differ significantly from elves but are equally spectacular in their own right.
Luck played a crucial role in Binotto's successful capture of the phenomenon. He was positioned approximately 300 kilometers away from the storm occurring in Vernazza when the powerful lightning strike took place. Using a Sony A7S camera equipped with a 20mm f/1.8 lens, he was shooting video at 25 frames per second. "I didn't capture any sprites, but fortunately, I managed to capture this Elve!" he wrote in an email describing his experience.
This wasn't Binotto's first encounter with such rare atmospheric phenomena. Earlier in 2023, he had successfully captured an even more dramatic red halo, which showcased the complexity and massive scale of these events in greater detail. His documentation of these fleeting moments provides valuable visual evidence of some of nature's most extraordinary and rarely witnessed displays, contributing to our understanding of these mysterious upper-atmospheric events.
