Mysterious red halo phenomenon appears in the sky of Italy

Photographer Valter Binotto captured a rare red halo, called ELVE, formed by a powerful lightning strike during a storm in Italy.

Nature photographer Valter Binotto has released a photo of a mysterious red halo appearing in the sky over the town of Possagno, Northern Italy.

The photo was taken by photographer Valter Binotto at around 10:45 pm on November 17 (local time). This is the second time he has captured this phenomenon.

Nature photographer Valter Binotto captured a giant UFO-like red halo appearing above Possagno. Photo: Valter Binotto.

Previously, photographer Valter captured a similar, even darker red halo that appeared in the same location in March 2023.

After seeing the photo, some people said that the red halo looked quite like a UFO. However, scientists explained that the mysterious halo was a rare phenomenon, called ELVE.

According to the science site Spaceweather.com, the red halos are called ELVE - an English acronym for "very low frequency light and disturbance emissions from electromagnetic pulse sources".

ELVEs are rarely seen because they are almost invisible to the naked eye. They flash across the sky for about a thousandth of a second, about 100 times faster than the blink of an eye. So photographers like Mr. Valter either have to be very lucky or have special equipment attached to their cameras to be able to capture them.

ELVEs form when powerful lightning bolts shoot electromagnetic pulses (EMPs) into space, where they hit the ionosphere – the ionized part of the upper atmosphere that extends from 80 to 644 km above the ground. There, they excite nitrogen molecules, emitting a brief red glow, similar to how auroras form.

ELVE was first discovered in 1990 by a NASA space shuttle. This ghostly halo hovers about 100 km above the ground and is about 200 km in diameter.

Photographer Valter said this ELVE was created by a powerful negative lightning strike during a storm that was occurring at the time in the Italian town of Vernazza, about 300 km south of Possagno.

According to photographer Valter, the red circle marks the location where the EMP hit the Earth's ionosphere. In this case, the EMP was released by a lightning strike with a current of about 303 kiloamperes, 10 to 30 times higher than the average intensity of a lightning strike in a thunderstorm.

Readers are invited to watch the video : Behind the success of scientists. Source: VTV24.

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