An ultra-rare ‘red sprite’ phenomenon that looks like huge glowing jellyfish has appeared in the night sky in Europe.
The natural occurrence is difficult to photograph as it is extremely short-lived, but they have been captured on film in the skies over Nice and Lake Geneva during the recent storms across France.
The lights, called farfadets in French, appear similar to red fireworks in the night sky, according to Connexion France. Environment and weather photographer Christophe Suarez captured the spectacle. It was seen in Rhône-Alpes, Bourgogne-Franche-Comté, and Grand-Est on the night of August 13-14.
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He posted some of his shots on X, with one burst of light resembling giant glowing jellyfish.
(Image: @suarezphoto/X)
“The spectacle was fabulous. Luckily, we were under the stars,” he wrote.
In a chat with the Daily Star, he added that he was able to photograph the Northern Lights and the red sprites in the space of 24 hours.
“I’ve been photographing storms for over 20 years and photographing red sprites for a few years now. It’s a great pleasure each time to see the red sprites appear on the LCD screen of my devices, but this time it was better than usual because the phenomena were powerful and very clear,” he said.
Christophe said he shot the storm from almost 190 miles away.
He added: “A day before from this place – which is at 1100m altitude and 40km (25 miles) from Nice – I had already photographed the Northern Lights, which is very rare in the south of France.”
(Image: @suarezphoto/X)
Christoph added that scientists can’t fully explain transient luminous events like the red sprites.
“In 2024, producing a beautiful image of TLE phenomena (transient luminous events) remains a challenge, even if more of us are interested in the phenomenon,” he explained.
“What remains exciting is that scientists do not yet fully explain the phenomenon. I have the impression of bringing a little touch – certainly artistic – to the understanding and popularisation of the phenomenon among the general public.”
Transient luminous events are short-lived electrical-breakdown phenomena/electrically induced forms of luminous plasma that occur well above the altitudes of normal lightning and clouds, according to Skybrary.
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