Over northern Italy, a rare atmospheric phenomenon known as an “elve” appeared as a glowing red ring above the Alps, captured by photographer Valter Binotto on November 17.

Elves are brief, disk-shaped flashes caused by powerful electromagnetic pulses from lightning striking the ionosphere, lasting less than a thousandth of a second and spanning hundreds of miles.

The event Binotto photographed was triggered by a massive -303 kilo-ampere lightning strike in Vernazza, about 300 km south of his location.

He recorded the elve using a Sony A7S camera at high ISO, capturing the 200-mile-wide flash hovering roughly 100 miles above Earth, Space.com has reported.

Binotto had previously photographed an even more dramatic elve in March 2023, demonstrating his unique ability to capture these elusive high-altitude electrical phenomena.