Unknown orange/red glow over Pacific Ocean

I came across this story on a Dutch website. This is my first thread, I didn't know where to post this, please move the thread if it doesn't belong here.


Link to PBase.com Story

Last night over the Pacific Ocean, somewhere South of the Russian peninsula Kamchatka I experienced the creepiest thing so far in my flying career.
After about 5 hours in flight we left Japan long time behind us and were cruising at a comfortable 34.000ft with about 4,5 hours to go towards Alaska.
We heard via the radio about earthquakes in Iceland, Chile and San Francisco, and since there were a few volcanos on our route that might or might not be going off during our flight, we double checked with dispatch if there was any new activity on our route after we departed from Hongkong.
Then, very far in the distance ahead of us, just over the horizon an intense lightflash shot up from the ground. It looked like a lightning bolt, but way more intense and directed vertically up in the air. I have never seen anything like this, and there were no flashes before or after this single explosion of light.
Since there were no thunderstorms on our route or weather-radar, we kept a close lookout for possible storms that might be hiding from our radar and might cause some problems later on.

I decided to try and take some pictures of the night sky and the strange green glow that was all over the Northern Hemisphere. I think it was sort of a Northern Lights but it was much more dispersed, never seen anything like this before either. About 20 minutes later in flight I noticed a deep red/orange glow appearing ahead of us, and this was a bit strange since there was supposed to be nothing but endless ocean below us for hundreds of miles around us. A distant city or group of typical Asian squid-fishing-boats would not make sense in this area, apart from the fact that the lights we saw were much larger in size and glowed red/orange, instead of the normal yellow and white that cities or ships would produce.
The closer we got, the more intense the glow became, illuminating the clouds and sky below us in a scary orange glow. In a part of the world where there was supposed to be nothing but water.
The only cause of this red glow that we could think of, was the explosion of a huge volcano just underneath the surface of the ocean, about 30 minutes before we overflew that exact position.
Since the nearest possible airport was at least 2 hours flying away, and the idea of flying into a highly dangerous and invisible ash-plume in the middle of the night over the vast Pacific Ocean we felt not exactly happy. Fortunately we did not encounter anything like this, but together with the very creepy unexplainable deep red/orange glow from the ocean's surface, we felt everything but comfortable. There was also no other traffic near our position or on the same routing to confirm anything of what we saw or confirm any type of ash clouds encountered.

We reported our observations to Air Traffic Control and an investigation into what happened in this remote region of the ocean is now started.

Two photos included, hardly edited except for watermark and resize. Note that photos are taken with extremely high ISO (sensor sensitivity) so quality might be a bit poor. Also an overview of our route + marking of the location is included.

Now I'm just hoping that if a new island has been formed there, at least it can be named after me as the official discoverer.

That would be pretty cool!

UPDATE: per request: 08/28/2014

-Extra information given by the photographer (click), along with FAQ's & answers given by the photographer
-FAQ Part II (click)
-Extra photos and google-earth map with underwater geography













To view the photos in higer resolution go to the photographer's website (click)

To be continued..

Wow, excellent pics. I wonder if this has anything to do with the Earthquakes. It is very strange. I could see where maybe Earths magnetic field is disrupted during an earthquake creating these lights. Still awesome firsthand account

Bioluminsecent Phytoplankton? or something similar?

That's my best guess, beautiful though.

Here it is in the day. GLOW

Quite sharp pictures for long exposures taken from an airplane.

Hmm...Strange and interesting.

Nice presentation, only need a link

Such wonders never cease to amaze me.

The focused lighting beam account has me intrigued.

S&F

a reply to: AnonymousWitness

Awesome Find! I Think It Could Be a New Land Mass Sprouting Up. Pretty Kool to Find it Like This. Glad No One Got Hurt.
Still, the Strange Light Beam is What Throws Me Off. Are There Any More Information or Detail Pertaining to the Light Beam?
I Would Say that Whatever Was in the Crust, Heated Up b/c of All the Seismic Activity and Jetted Outta There. Earth is Shaking Also From the CME That Are Hitting Earths Weak Magnetic Field. The Fact that It is Located in the Ring of Fire is Irrelevant Simply Because of that is the way Earths Mantle and Crust of the Continental Tectonic Plates are Placed, Weak Spots Perfect for New Land Development.

Thanks for the replies everyone, have added the link to the opening post .

Very interesting, great find OP

a reply to: roadgravel

This is being discussed on the Dutch website as well, I am no expert in photography, so I have no explanation for it. I hope someone can explain this.

Possibly a CME that hit around this time from what I have read. Looks like a nice light show but I don't know if that could make the water light up like that.

originally posted by: AnonymousWitness
a reply to: roadgravel

This is being discussed on the Dutch website as well, I am no expert in photography, so I have no explanation for it. I hope someone can explain this.

I am a bit suspicious but it is an obvious high vantage point. ISS?

This reminds me of the Doorway To Hell, in Darvaza.Just the entire overall surrounding look of it. Has there been any kind of photography akin to this style done in the Darvaza area before? it could be someone trying to pass on photos from there as something else.

originally posted by: Briles1207
Bioluminsecent Phytoplankton? or something similar?

That's my best guess, beautiful though.

It certainly could explain the large area described, but there are very few species that have a red glow, and some of those are infra red. If you look at the pictures though, there is also yellow light, kind of what you might expect from lava say, along with the red glow.

a reply to: smurfy

I also wonder if this could be a algae bloom that is glowing....I know they typically glow blue, but maybe a new type of algae bloom that glows red? Like red tide?

originally posted by: Vasa Croe
a reply to: smurfy

I also wonder if this could be a algae bloom that is glowing....I know they typically glow blue, but maybe a new type of algae bloom that glows red? Like red tide?

Yes, but I think what they call 'Red tide' is a precursor to the blue glow..at night anyway.
I'm thinking now that this might be more eruptions from 'new' island called, 'Nishinoshima'. It first appeared in the 70's, but there were more eruptions in late 2013, and most of what was called Nishinoshima has been subsumed by an even bigger island. Currently it is active with lava fields, and ash, and seeded clouds, etc.

a reply to: roadgravel

No ISS, it was taken from a 747-8 Freighter at 34.000ft.

Looks like lava.

This is why I joined ats what a great thread .
We'll done op !

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Here is the EXIF data; I'm kinda confused myself about the 8 second exposure time. Im gonna ask my brother, who is a photographer, maybe he can answer this question.