Photo credit: Valter Binotto
Photographer Valter Binotto managed to captured a strange red ring of light that appeared in the skies above Italy for milliseconds. This phenomenon is known as an ELVE, which are massive red halos that occur high in the atmosphere at around 100 km (62 mi) above active thunderstorms. They can be as large as 400 km (248 mi) in diameter and last just a mere millisecond.
ELVEs are caused by a large, intense lightning strike in a thunderstorm below, when the electromagnetic discharge rises up from the storm and spreads out like a ripple from a pebble. This occurs near the transition between the stratosphere and the ionosphere. Binotto’s image is thought to have been the result of an EMP from a thunderstorm near Ancona, Italy. However, this upward lightning burst that extended 50-miles into space is still perplexing researchers.
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