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Earthlights / Earth Lights

EnolaGaia said:
The Min Min Lights have a dedicated thread:

https://forums.forteana.org/index.php?threads/min-min-lights-australian-outback.15058/

(... to which I've copied your post / report ...)
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When I was in the Haunted Bookshop in Melbourne I asked if he had any books on earth lights. He never heard of the things. I had to explain. Then he said "OH, you mean 'min min'". And he didn't have anything. But I learned that the term is NOT very popular anymore and that min min are a general name for them in that part of the world.
 
SummerLightning said:
Often, discussions about ball lightning refer to phenomena that seem to be the same as, or very like, what others might call earthlights. See, for example: http://www.torro.org.uk/ball_info.php
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Ball lightning clearly is associated with storms. There is considerable scholarly work on BL where there is much less for earth lights that are not related to storms. However, they do seem to often have the common association with electricity or magnetic fields and look somewhat similar. And then you can loop in seismically active areas that may produce electromagnetic effects and thus produce lights. But earthlights mostly come from the ground or remain close to the ground as opposed to BL or UAP which come from forked lightning bolts/storm clouds and down from the sky.
 
In principle, I agree - but many, including some meteorologists and other scientists, conflate BL with earthlights and other GLO phenomena (whatever they may be). Others of course still deny that BL exists. The phenomenon (or phenomena) is poorly understood and there are many cases which resist classification - eg what appears to be BL on the basis of observed properties and behaviour, but occurs in the absence of storms. The link I posted reflects that: "There are no specific circumstances in which the phenomenon manifests, and despite its common name, it often has no connection with actual lightning discharges."
 
There are several scholarly books on BL outlining experiments and the various theories of formation.

It is strange that the media accepts BL as "real" yet many skeptics reject it entirely as anecdotal or a byproduct of forked lightning. There are no such general books about earth lights; though Devereux's comes closest and is the best. There is some literature about Brown Mountain Lights that is straight up scientific. The trend of interpretation for earth lights in the popular media right now appears to be spiritual or some other such untestable stuff.
 
This may be appropriate to the UFO sections but going by the book title, I put it here:

THE MARFA LIGHTS

Examining the Photographic Evidence (2003-2007)

By Manuel Borraz & V.J. Ballester Olmos

(July 2020)

We are pleased to announce the release of a book dedicated to the scientific analysis of photographs of the so-called “Marfa Lights,” an allegedly anomalous phenomenon recurrently observed in Marfa, Texas.​

Between 2003 and 2007, seven series of high-quality photographs were taken in the area, claimed to be genuine examples of close-to-the-ground lights that defy conventional explanation. They were not a simple subset of examples of MLs, but the best and most significant photographs ever achieved of the phenomenon.

Over two years, taking an almost forensic approach, we have analyzed this evidence and come to firm conclusions that establish the true nature of the lights beyond any reasonable doubt. We are convinced that the corollary applied to the images and events discussed can be justifiably extended to the rest of the Marfa “mystery lights.”

Using advanced astronomical and geographic software, we have developed a specific methodology for analyzing this type of photographic evidence, which other researchers can apply to identify similar images of “mystery lights” from other parts of the world.

We are proud of the reaction that scientists from a wide range of disciplines have had to our work, as the quotations in the attachment show.

This work is FOTOCAT Report #8 in a series of monographs produced by the FOTOCAT project. It contains 174 pages, 102 illustrations and 70 references. This monograph is available free of charge through the following link:

https://www.academia.edu/43589341/THE_MARFA_LIGHTS._Examining_the_Photographic_Evidence_2003-2007_
 
Paul_Exeter said:
*bump*

Two short articles on the Hessdalen lights:

https://www.societyforuapstudies.org/post/project-hessdalen-part-1-from-3-june-1983-to-24-march-1994

https://www.societyforuapstudies.or...part-2-from-24-march-1994-to-26-february-2021

Earthlights seem to have fallen out of Fortean fashion yet I keep coming across contemporary cases that have a possible Earthlights causation
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It could be that they are eclipsed by the giant "UAP" umbrella. But they are certainly making a comeback in some areas related to cryptid sightings. Notably, in the past few years in Pennsylvania, the Bigfoot seekers are saying witnesses report lights. This is not that mysterious, though. But they make it so. Same with the "mystery booms".

To be realistic, no earth light studies have shown anything interesting. Hessdalen may be the most curious but it's still speculation. Marfa lights are completely debunked. Even the Brown Mountain lights in North Carolina are nothingburgers. You never know when some weird thing will become trendy and start "flapping" again.
 
On one of my forays to Metabunk I came across a link to the fabulous 'Phantoms of the Sky' by David Clarke and Andy Roberts (1990) and with a foreword by Jenny Randles:

https://files.afu.se/Downloads/Books/Other/Clarke, David and Roberts, Andy - Phantoms of the Sky.pdf

[The book is long out of print and so I hope it is okay to post this link].

Anyway, Chapter 9 is on earth-lights and their being mistaken for UFOs. There is a huge amount of detail and even though these are natural phenomena it still got my Fortean senses tingling, not least as it involves folk being out at night on lonely moorlands and such like and being perplexed by what they witness...

Personally have had a couple of earth-light experiences: a large fireball that fizzed across the sky following a thunderstorm (1983) and strange, extremely bright flashes in the sky like lightning but a 'colder' blue/white light on a clear night after snow had fallen (1984, multiple witnesses).

Research into earth-lights seems to have peaked during the latter decades of the last Century and yet there are so many 21st Century UFO sightings being shared on Reddit and elsewhere that fit within the definition of earth-lights, so is there any enthusiasm on these forums for a bit of an earth-lights revival..?
 
Paul_Exeter said:
On one of my forays to Metabunk I came across a link to the fabulous 'Phantoms of the Sky' by David Clarke and Andy Roberts (1990) and with a foreword by Jenny Randles:

https://files.afu.se/Downloads/Books/Other/Clarke, David and Roberts, Andy - Phantoms of the Sky.pdf

[The book is long out of print and so I hope it is okay to post this link].

Anyway, Chapter 9 is on earth-lights and their being mistaken for UFOs. There is a huge amount of detail and even though these are natural phenomena it still got my Fortean senses tingling, not least as it involves folk being out at night on lonely moorlands and such like and being perplexed by what they witness...

Personally have had a couple of earth-light experiences: a large fireball that fizzed across the sky following a thunderstorm (1983) and strange, extremely bright flashes in the sky like lightning but a 'colder' blue/white light on a clear night after snow had fallen (1984, multiple witnesses).

Research into earth-lights seems to have peaked during the latter decades of the last Century and yet there are so many 21st Century UFO sightings being shared on Reddit and elsewhere that fit within the definition of earth-lights, so is there any enthusiasm on these forums for a bit of an earth-lights revival..?
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Worth reading for Jenny Randles's foreword alone: a heavy dose of everyday wisdom.

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