Scientists are baffled as mysterious halo of red light appears over Italian town
13 days ago
- #ELVEs
- #Atmospheric Phenomena
- #Transient Luminous Events
- A mysterious red halo of light appeared over Possagno, Italy, for the second time in three years.
- Photographer Valter Binotto captured the phenomenon, which resembles a previous sighting in March 2023.
- The halo, estimated to be 150 miles across, is likely an ELVE (Emission of Light and Very Low-Frequency Perturbations due to Electromagnetic Pulse Sources).
- ELVEs are rare, caused by powerful lightning strikes interacting with the ionosphere, emitting a red glow.
- They last only one-thousandth of a second, making them extremely difficult to photograph.
- Binotto uses specialized high-speed cameras to capture these fleeting events.
- ELVEs are part of a broader category of transient luminous events (TLEs), which include red sprites.
- Despite their rarity, two ELVEs were observed over Possagno, likely due to Binotto's expertise rather than the town's unique characteristics.
- These phenomena can occur anywhere with powerful lightning strikes and are not location-specific.