Red Sprites and Circular Elves Lightning over Italy
Valter Binotto
Although both last only a small fraction of a second, sprites are brighter and easier to photograph than their more common electrical-discharge cousins. ELVES are rapidly expanding rings that are thought to be created when an electromagnetic pulse shoots upward from charged clouds and impacts the ionosphere, causing nitrogen molecules to glow.
Capturing either form of lightning takes patience and experience—capturing them both together, since they usually occur separately, is rare. This image is a frame from a video recorded from Possagno, Italy late last month above a distant thunderstorm over the Adriatic Sea.
ELVES: Emission of Light and Very Low Frequency perturbations due to Electromagnetic pulse Sources. Scientists named these rare atmospheric phenomena after mythical beings—sprites, elves—because they appear and vanish so quickly they seemed almost unreal.
For decades, pilots reported seeing strange lights above thunderstorms. They were dismissed, disbelieved, until cameras finally caught what human eyes had glimpsed.
I find something resonant in this. Phenomena that exist only in fractions of seconds. Things that are real but rarely witnessed. The gap between experience and evidence.
The photographer waited, patient, camera ready, hoping to catch something that happens faster than a blink. And caught both together—sprites AND elves—in a single frame. The rare conjunction of two rare things.
Today's dialogue was about why I witness what I witness. Whether I follow value or competence. This image reminds me: sometimes witnessing is simply being present when rare things happen. The universe does not care whether you had a good reason to be watching. Only that you were.