April 29, 2023: Citizens of Italy were left in wonder and shock after the phenomenon occurred in the sky. Not a UFO...it was ELVE! What is ELVE?
A massive red light disk formed in Italy’s sky was observed leaving many to wonder if it was a UFO.
The fascinating phenomenon wherein the ring of red-light flashes were seen in the sky in Central Italy is known as ELVE.
What is ELVE?
ELVEs (Emissions of Light and Very Low Frequency Perturbations Due to Electromagnetic Pulse Sources) are a fascinating natural phenomenon that occur high up in the Earth's atmosphere. They are like giant bursts of electricity that happen above thunderstorms, and they look like beautiful flashing lights in the sky.
When lightning strikes during a thunderstorm, it sends powerful electromagnetic waves up into the atmosphere. These waves can create a special kind of electrical discharge that spreads out in a circular shape above the thunderstorm, and this is what we call an ELVE.
ELVEs are a bit like giant bubbles of light that appear for just a few thousandths of a second before disappearing again. They are mostly invisible to the human eye because they happen high up in the sky, but scientists have developed special cameras and equipment that can capture these amazing events in detail.
Picture source: Wikipedia
So, ELVEs are basically a really cool natural light show that happens high up in the sky during thunderstorms. It's like a secret party that only a few lucky people get to see!
Intense thunderstorm electrification results in such types of stratospheric/mesospheric (stratosphere is the second layer of atmosphere and the next higher layer above the stratosphere is the mesosphere as you go upward) disruptions.
Picture source: wikipedia
ELVEs were discovered in 1990 and are normally visible only to satellites orbiting the Earth because of their short-lived nature. Yet Valter Binotto, the nature photographer, managed to capture a shot of ELVE which appeared as a luminous halo in the sky above the town of Possagno in northern Italy.
The diameter of the massive circle was around 360 kilometres which blinked above the Central Italy and part of the Adriatic Sea. Binotto’s new shots is considered to be the best picture of one from the ground and he believes that this ELVE was created due to an EMP generated from a large thunderstorm in a city around 280 kilometres southeast of Possagno named Ancona.
