A bright halo of red light has been spotted over a small Italian town at the foot of the Alps – a rare atmospheric phenomenon that flashes too quickly for the human eye to see. It is the second time in three years that such a mysterious appearance has been seen in the sky.
The glowing ring photographed over Possagno by nature photographer Valter Binotto looks almost identical to another mysterious red ring he captured in March 2023, it is reported. But despite their otherworldly appearance, the lights aren’t UFOs — they’re ELVEs — “light emission and very low-frequency disturbances from electromagnetic pulse sources” — a rare phenomenon triggered by lightning, the Spaceweather report mentions.
ELVEs are very elusive because they only last one thousandth of a second – about 100 times faster than the blink of an eye. People rarely notice Leprechauns because they are almost invisible to the naked eye. Spotting them requires either extreme luck or specialized camera equipment.
When did ELVE appear?
The latest red halo appeared around 10:45 p.m. (local time) on November 17 and was slightly fainter than the 2023 event, Spaceweather said.
ELVEs form when an exceptionally strong electromagnetic pulse (EMP) flash is released, hurtling upward into the ionosphere. There, the EMP excites the nitrogen molecules, causing them to flash red—much like the aurora borealis glows, even though it’s caused by oxygen.
“I didn’t catch any elves, but luckily I managed to catch this elf!” Binotto told another source, Space.com, in an email. He used a Sony A7S with a 20mm f/1.8 lens at ISO 51200. The photo is a still from a video shot at 25fps.
How did the ELVE photographer notice?
“The ELVE was generated by a strong negative lightning strike in a storm in Vernazza about 300 km south of me,” Binotto told Spaceweather.com.
One lightning strike reached an extraordinary -303 kiloamperes (the minus sign indicates the polarity of the lightning) and produced an intense electromagnetic pulse (EMP) that lit up the ionosphere. A typical lightning bolt usually carries only 10 to 30 kiloamperes of current. This elf hovered about 100 miles (160 km) above Earth’s surface and was roughly 200 miles (320 km) in diameter, according to Spaceweather.com.
Although Possagno has now become the backdrop for two of these rare events, the town itself has no unique conditions to cause this phenomenon. ELVEs appear high in the atmosphere and can be photographed hundreds of kilometers away. Binotto’s latest image was taken by a thunderstorm near Vernazza, about 185 miles (300 km) south of Possagno. 2023 ELVE originates from a storm near Ancona, about 280 km away.
