Unusual Light Pillars

What's happening over that town? Close inspection shows these strange columns of light occur over bright lights, and so likely involve falling ice crystals reflecting back these lights. The reason why these pillars fan out at the top, however, is currently unknown -- readers of APOD might help figure this out by participating in an online discussion. The above image and several similar images were taken with a standard digital camera in Sigulda, Latvia last month. The air was noted to be quite cold and indeed filled with small ice crystals, just the type known to create several awe-inspiring but well known sky phenomena such as light pillars, sun pillars, sun dogs, and moon halos. The cold and snowy winter occurring this year in parts of Earth's northern hemisphere is giving sky enthusiasts new and typically unexpected opportunities to see several of these unusual optical atmospheric phenomena for themselves.

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reply to post by Universal Light Being


Cool pic, looks like the Aurora, the Northern Lights. Anyway, it looks really cool. Sure would like to see this live, and in color!

reply to post by autowrench



It does remind one of the Aurora Lights, but the question is:

Why would ice crystals (in the air) reflect in a vertical line?

Great find! Star and flag!

I find it most interesting that they cannot figure out why the pillars fan out.
It's amazing with all the new mind boggling stuff keeps coming our way.
Thank you so much for sharing!

Synth

Originally posted by Universal Light Being
reply to post by autowrench

 

It does remind one of the Aurora Lights, but the question is:

Why would ice crystals (in the air) reflect in a vertical line?

I believe what we are seeing is more electrons and protons and other particles interacting with our atmosphere.
It's a trippy photo for sure!