Rare Dual Lightning Phenomenon Captured Over Italy in Once-in-a-Decade Atmospheric Event

The photograph was captured by Valter Binotto, an award-winning Italian wildlife photographer who has spent more than a decade dedicating himself to documenting elusive atmospheric events. The rare spectacle unfolded a couple of weeks ago after an exceptionally intense lightning strike occurred over the Adriatic Sea, between the Italian and Balkan peninsulas. The electrical energy released was so strong that the resulting electromagnetic field expanded across hundreds of kilometres into the upper atmosphere, triggering multiple transient luminous events at once.

Red Sprites are brief but dramatic flashes of red light that occur high above thunderstorms, typically following powerful cloud-to-ground lightning strikes. They often appear as branching tendrils reaching downward, earning comparisons to glowing jellyfish suspended in the sky. ELVEs, short for “Emission of Light and Very Low-Frequency Perturbations due to Electromagnetic Pulse Sources,” are even rarer. These phenomena manifest as rapidly expanding, thin red disks in the lower ionosphere, created by electromagnetic pulses from intense lightning below.

Both phenomena glow red due to the excitation of nitrogen molecules in the upper atmosphere, but their fleeting nature makes them exceptionally difficult to document. According to experts, successfully capturing such events requires specialized equipment, including telephoto lenses reaching up to 300 millimetres, ultra-wide apertures as low as f/1.3, high-frame-rate cameras, and complete stability using a tripod. Even with the right tools, photographers must rely on patience, precise timing, and a measure of luck.

Binotto’s achievement is particularly notable given the rarity of ELVEs. Reflecting on his work, he said that over more than ten years he has photographed hundreds of Red Sprites, but only three ELVEs in total—including this image, which uniquely captures both phenomena together. “ELVEs are very rare and therefore more difficult to photograph,” he explained, underscoring the significance of the moment.

While Binotto is widely recognized for his wildlife photography, his passion for atmospheric phenomena has placed him among a small group of observers documenting these extreme and poorly understood events. Scientists continue to study transient luminous events to better understand the complex interactions between thunderstorms and Earth’s upper atmosphere.

The rare dual capture not only stands as a technical and artistic achievement but also contributes valuable visual evidence to atmospheric science. As extreme weather events increase in intensity worldwide, such observations may play an important role in deepening scientific understanding of the planet’s electrical and atmospheric dynamics.