A few days ago in the night sky above Italy.

A disk of unknown origin appeared and disappeared in a fraction of a second, meaning that few people noticed the eerie phenomenon.

However, on March 27, naturalist photographer Walter Binotto managed to capture a dark red sky ring over the northern Italian city of Possano.

The red halo with a diameter of 360 kilometers was, apparently, not directly above the city, but over central Italy and part of the Adriatic Sea.

The appearance of this bright ring, known as ELVE, from the initials of the scientific designation “emission of light and disturbances of very low frequency due to sources of electromagnetic impulses”, is associated with thunderclouds that have gathered over Italy.

ELVs are a rare type of stratospheric/mesospheric disturbance resulting from a strong electrical charge during thunderstorms.

A ring of red light is created when electromagnetic pulses caused by powerful lightning strike the ionosphere, an ionized layer of the atmosphere that extends from 60 to 640 km.

Because of their short life span, ELVs are usually only visible to satellites in Earth orbit. They were first recorded in 1990 thanks to NASA spacecraft cameras.

According to Spaceweather.com, Binotto’s photo is “probably the best of the Elves as seen from the ground.”

Source: live science