Photographer Captures Ultra-Rare Red Ring of Light Over Italy
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Loading... - Carla Colombo
- 27 Apr 2023
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A photographer has captured a rare and mysterious phenomenon called ELVE which appears as a massive red ring of light in the sky and is generated from thunderstorm clouds.
Valter Binotto captured the ELVE which appeared for only a few milliseconds over Italy on Monday, March 27. It was 223 miles (359 kilometers) wide and located 62 miles (100 kilometers) high in the ionosphere.
Binotto tells PetaPixel that he had to employ a specialist technique and equipment to capture this wonderous phenomenon.
“With normal cameras, they are difficult to photograph,” he says. “The light they emit is very low and in the infrared, where the sensors cannot see. I use a camera without the normal IR Cut filter so it also sees the infrared band well.”
To capture the image, Binotto was recording video at 25 frames per second on his Sony a7S that had a Nikon 20mm f/1.8 attached.
“The camera is set to 51,200 ISO and the lens is wide open. I record on an Atomos Ninja flame at 4K,” he adds.
What is an ELVE?
ELVE stands for Emissions of Light and Very Low-Frequency Perturbations due to Electromagnetic Pulse Sources. It’s a rare form of Sprite, itself a large-scale electrical discharge that occurs high above a thunderstorm cloud that scientists are still studying.
There are many different types of Sprites with an ELVE being the largest and rarest. To see one, you must be very far away from the thunderstorm it’s generated from. ELVEs were only discovered in 1990 by the camera onboard a space shuttle. Read More…
