Rare ‘Red Sprites’ Light Up New Zealand Sky Beneath the Milky Way

In a dazzling display of nature’s hidden wonders, a trio of photographers in New Zealand captured one of the world’s rarest light phenomena, “red sprites”, glowing vividly against the Milky Way.

According to a report by The Guardian, New Zealand photographer Tom Rae and Spanish photographers Dan Zafra and José Cantabrana set out to photograph the night sky over the Ōmārama Clay Cliffs in the South Island on October 11, when they unexpectedly witnessed the extraordinary event.

Initially hoping only for clear skies, the photographers instead found themselves capturing luminous crimson flashes high above a distant storm. “Cantabrana suggested we might be treated to a display of red sprites when he saw a storm brewing over the horizon,” Rae told The Guardian. Moments later, the phenomenon appeared.

“He was checking his files for a Milky Way panorama and discovered he had captured red sprites,” Rae said. “Dan and I just could not believe it, there was a whole bunch of screaming and shouting and all sorts going on in the dark,” as quoted by The Guardian.

Red sprites are bursts of electrical energy that occur in the upper atmosphere during thunderstorms. Unlike conventional lightning, which strikes downward toward the Earth, red sprites shoot upward toward the stratosphere, forming shapes resembling columns, carrots, or jellyfish.

The first-ever photograph of a red sprite was captured accidentally in 1989 by researchers at the University of Minnesota. The phenomenon lasts for only a millisecond, making it nearly invisible to the naked eye. But Rae was fortunate. “I happened to be looking directly at one when it happened, just a perfect coincidence, and I saw a brief red flash,” he said, reported The Guardian.

For Rae, an award-winning nightscape photographer, the experience was surreal. “It looks like you’re seeing something that isn’t real. It’s very ethereal, a deep red colour that’s there for just a split second,” he said. Capturing such a moment, he added, requires not only technical skill but also a deep understanding of atmospheric science and creative vision, The Guardian reported.

Zafra described the night as one of the “most extraordinary” of his life. “I could see the Milky Way glowing above the horizon while these enormous red tendrils of light danced above a storm hundreds of kilometres away,” he said, as quoted by The Guardian.

To the photographers’ knowledge, their images may be the only known photographs showing red sprites and the southern hemisphere Milky Way together in a single frame, a rare fusion of science, art, and cosmic wonder.

“It was one of those moments when you know you’re witnessing something you’ll probably never see again,” Zafra said, The Guardian reported.