Sometimes, night skies expose brief and spectacular sights that are rarely, if ever, experienced by most people directly. In northern Italy, astrophotographer Valter Binotto recently captured two such extremely rare atmospheric outbursts in one shot.
The sighting over Possagno near Venice, followed an unusually powerful lightning strike above the Adriatic Sea. The electrical surge expanded far across the upper atmosphere, triggering two of the elusive luminous formations known as Red Sprites and ELVEs.
What are Red Sprites
Red Sprites shoot upwards above thunderstorms in bright, sudden flashes of crimson. The filaments branch downwards in most familiar shapes, resembling floating jellyfish. They occur when a strong lightning stroke pushes energy upwards rather than downwards, eliciting a response in the thinner layers of the atmosphere.
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If they may exist for merely milliseconds, their structure and coloration is so striking when people are fortunate enough to capture them.
What is ELVEs
ELVEs are related to lightning as well but occur at even higher altitudes in the ionosphere. They appear as huge, glowing rings that expand outward, similar to ripples on water. They glow red due to excited nitrogen molecules from the electromagnetic pulse of a strong lightning stroke.
If Red Sprites are rare, then ELVEs are even more challenging to observe because they form hundreds of kilometres above the storm that caused them.
Capturing the Unseen
Both types of atmospheric flashes require precision timing and specialized gear to photograph. They require fast-aperture cameras, long lenses, sturdy tripods, and high frame rates, but even with the right equipment, patience is the determining factor.
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Binotto has been tracking these occurrences for over a decade now, capturing hundreds of sprites and, until recently, fewer than five ELVEs. What makes this latest capture extraordinary is that it captures both not only clearly but in one shot:
A Curious Photographer
Most of Binotto’s work is done in wildlife photography, but his love goes beyond animals. The chase for sprites, ELVEs, and other atmospheric oddities seems to have become a distinctive mark of his work.
What happened in Possagno underlines how much dedication is required to document the fleeting wonders of the upper atmosphere and reminds us that nature still reserves its surprises well above the storms we see from the ground.
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Disclaimer: This article provides general editorial analysis and should not be taken as scientific instruction or technical guidance.
