I think the type depicted in the photo is quite common, usually in the vcnty of ice crystals or intensely electrically charged cloud.
When it becomes particularly intense, the radar beam also becomes ionised and can be seen as a thin cone either green blue or purple pointing off into the distance ahead, sometimes fifty or a hundred feet. It is often accompanied by intense static on the radios. Hail and turbulence are also often in attendance.
Spectacular, but scary.
I have seen it just about everywhere at various times, tropics to Canada.