Overview
- Photographer Valter Binotto recorded the fleeting ring at 10:45 local time on November 17 over Possagno in northern Italy.
- The structure spanned about 200 kilometers across at roughly 100 kilometers altitude, consistent with known transient luminous events.
- Analysis ties the flash to a thunderstorm over Ancona about 280 kilometers away, illustrating how such events can appear far from their source.
- A similar halo photographed from the same town in March 2023 was traced to lightning near Vernazza roughly 300 kilometers distant.
- ELVEs persist for only around one thousandth of a second, so Binotto relies on high‑framerate video to capture rare frames, a feat he says he has achieved only three times.