新西兰的红色闪电：完美的巧合？灾难的警示？

摘要：A trio of photographers in New Zealand have captured images of “red sprites”, or red lightning, one of the rarest light phenomena

‘A perfect coincidence’:

rare red lightning captured

in New Zealand skies

“完美的巧合”：新西兰天空捕捉到

罕见的红色闪电

Photographers capture extremely unusual phenomenon – also known as red sprites – against backdrop of the Milky Way

摄影师在银河系背景下捕捉到极其不寻常的现象——也称为红色精灵

Eva Corlett in Wellington

惠灵顿的伊娃·科莱特

Wed 22 Oct 2025 02.05 BST

2025年10月22日星期三 02.05 BST

A trio of photographers in New Zealand have captured images of “red sprites”, or red lightning, one of the rarest light phenomena in the world, in which luminous crimson flashes appear in the sky.

新西兰的三位摄影师拍摄到了“红色精灵”或红色闪电的图像，这是世界上最罕见的发光现象之一，天空中会出现明亮的深红色闪光。

New Zealand photographer Tom Rae and Spanish photographers Dan Zafra and José Cantabrana set out to shoot the Milky Way over the Ōmārama Clay cliffs in the South Island on 11 October, when they chanced upon the extraordinary event.

10 月 11 日，新西兰摄影师汤姆·雷 (Tom Rae) 和西班牙摄影师丹·扎夫拉 (Dan Zafra) 和何塞·坎塔布拉纳 (José Cantabrana) 出发在南岛的奥马拉马粘土悬崖上拍摄银河，偶然发现了这一非凡的景象。

The photographers thought they would be lucky to get clear skies that evening, but their night turned into “an unforgettable one”, Rae told the Guardian.

雷告诉《卫报》，摄影师们原本以为那天晚上能拍到晴朗的天空就已经很幸运了，但没想到，这个夜晚却变成了“一个难忘的夜晚”。

Cantabrana suggested they might be treated to a display of red sprites, when he saw a storm brewing over the horizon, Rae said.

雷说，坎塔布拉纳建议他们欣赏红色精灵的表演，这时他看到地平线上正在酝酿一场暴风雨。

“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.”

“他当时正在检查银河全景图，结果发现自己拍到了红色精灵，”雷说。“丹和我简直不敢相信——黑暗中一片尖叫声、喊叫声，还有各种各样的声音。”

Red sprites are bursts of electrical energy in the upper atmosphere, generated by thunderstorms. Unlike lightning that shoots towards the ground, red sprites shoot upwards towards the upper atmosphere, creating forms that look like columns, carrots or even jellyfish. The first photograph of a red sprite was taken – accidentally – in 1989, by a team at the University of Minnesota.

红色精灵是由雷暴产生的高层大气中爆发出的电能。与射向地面的闪电不同，红色精灵向上射向高层大气，形成类似柱子、胡萝卜甚至水母的形状。第一张红色精灵的照片是由明尼苏达大学的一个团队于1989年意外拍摄到的。

They are so brief – lasting just a millisecond – that they are rarely visible to the naked eye, but Rae got lucky. “I happened to be looking directly at one when it happened – just a perfect coincidence looking at the right part of the sky and I saw a brief red flash,” he said.

这些闪光非常短暂——仅持续一毫秒——肉眼几乎无法看到，但雷很幸运。“它发生的时候，我正好直视它——巧合的是，我看向了天空的正确位置，然后看到了一道短暂的红色闪光，”他说。

Witnessing the phenomena was a dream for Rae, an award-winning night scape photographer. “It looks like you’re seeing something that is not real, it’s very ethereal … it’s this very deep red colour that is there for a split second, so it’s really interesting to see.”

对于屡获殊荣的夜景摄影师雷来说，亲眼目睹这种现象简直是梦想。“它看起来就像你看到的某种不真实的东西，非常飘渺……它是一种非常深的红色，只存在了一瞬间，所以看起来真的很有趣。”

Capturing a red sprite requires a mastery of technical photography, as well as an understanding of science and creative flare, Rae said. “It’s a really involved type of photography that’s very rewarding as well.”

雷说，捕捉红色精灵需要精通摄影技术，也需要对科学有深入的理解，并且富有创造力。“这是一种非常复杂的摄影方式，但回报也非常丰厚。”

Zafra said it was one of the “most extraordinary nights” 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,” Zafra said.

扎弗拉说，这是他一生中“最非凡的夜晚”之一。“我能看到银河在地平线上闪耀，而这些巨大的红色光带在数百公里外的风暴上空舞动，”扎弗拉说。