Light Pillars / Sun Pillars

[Mighty_Emperor]

Sun Pillars

Spectacular happenings in the dawn sky

The beginning of the Upper Sun Pillar display.

On Sunday 16th May west Cornwall experienced a spectacular Upper Sun Pillar.

It was formed from ice crystals in the atmosphere.

FACTS


Ice crystals form in a wide variety of shapes and sizes: stars, needles, columns and plates.

When bright light passes from the sun, moon or an artificial light source through a portion of the sky containing a concentration of ice crystals, magical apparitions often appear.
The crystals focus, scatter, bend, split and reflect the light rays into a kaleidoscope of optical phenomena: arcs, glories, halos, pillars and sun dogs.

Ice crystals form in the atmosphere in a wide variety of shapes and sizes and when bright light from the Sun, Moon or even a street light passes through a part of the sky containing them, some interesting shapes develop.

One of these is the Light Pillar and the most commonly seen form is the Upper Sun Pillar. It extends from 5 to 10 degrees above the sun when it is just below or just below the horizon.

The ice crystals are in the form of flat hexagonal plates and these reflect the light externally and internally downwards. When the crystals are below a line between the observer and the sun they can reflect the light upwards to form a pillar that appears to be under the Sun.

Because the light forming the pillar is reflected, the pillar takes on that colour so that it is red or orange when close to the horizon and becomes yellow or white as the sun rises.

This change can be seen in the pictures on this page.

They were all taken around dawn on Sunday 16th of May 2004, one by Amanda Jenkin and the others by BBC Radio Cornwall's Chris Stumbles

bbc.co.uk/cornwall/weather/uppersunpillar.shtml
Link is dead. The MIA webpage can be accessed via the Wayback Machine:
https://web.archive.org/web/2004072...c.co.uk/cornwall/weather/uppersunpillar.shtml

More stuff on light pillars:

islandnet.com/~see/weather/eyes/pillars.htm
Link is dead. The MIA webpage overview of light pillar / sun pillar phenomena can be accessed via the Wayback Machine:
https://web.archive.org/web/20040810174155/http://www.islandnet.com/~see/weather/eyes/pillars.htm

 

[Anonymous]

Some soldiers in Iraq see something out of the norm... (which is saying something..)
liveleak.com/view?i=213_1199497168
Link is dead. The MIA webpage is accessible via the Wayback Machine, but the video it contains is MIA.
(Link to embedded video deleted)

 

[azuredoor]

Some soldiers in Iraq see something out of the norm... (which is saying something..)
liveleak.com/view?i=213_1199497168
Link is dead. The MIA webpage is accessible via the Wayback Machine, but the video it contains is MIA.

Embedded media from this media site is no longer available

Nice light pillars http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Light_pillar

 

[Zilch5]

[quote]Light pillar

A light pillar is a visual phenomenon created by the reflection of light from ice crystals with near horizontal parallel planar surfaces. The light can come from the sun (usually at or low to the horizon) in which case the phenomenon is called a sun pillar or solar pillar. It can also come from the moon or from terrestrial sources such as streetlights.[/quote]

Some high quality pics of this sort of thing here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Light_pillar

and here

http://www.atoptics.co.uk/halo/lpil.htm

I think that settles it?

 

[eburacum]

Here's an APOD image showing multiple light pillars at night arising from streetlights in Latvia
http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap090112.html

A similarity of sorts, I think.

 

[Tribble]

When Raitis Freimanis, 54, got up early on Wednesday morning in Bromma, Stockholm, he discovered something unusual outside his window. Several tall columns were shining up from the ground, radiating yellow and blue light.

"I was thinking what the hell is this? At first I thought it was a floodlight or something, I thought to myself, why would they put up a floodlight at 5am?" Freimanis told The Local on Thursday.

The Stockholmer said he had been woken by the family's cat and had decided to go and feed the animal. And after seeing the magnificent strange pillars, he ended up getting his son and wife out of bed to see them too, in case they didn't appear again.

Together the family researched what they had seen. They believe that the lights were an optical phenomenon caused by the reflection of bright lights from Stockholm city centre, by tiny ice crystals, hovering in the air.

“It was -13C here in Stockholm and windless, and there were ice crystals in the air,” Freimanis explained, adding that it was hard to judge the height of the pillars.
The fact that the lights were yellow and blue – the colours of the Swedish flag – appears to have been a coincidence.

The family -- including the cat -- were hooked by the light pillars from 5am until around 6.30am, taking photos of the phenomena – images which have since gone viral on social media in Sweden.

http://www.thelocal.se/20160107/mysterious-light-pillar-appeared-in-stockholm

Obligatory Wiki page on the phenomenon : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Light_pillar

 

[Tribble]

http://www.thelocal.se/20160107/mysterious-light-pillar-appeared-in-stockholm

Obligatory Wiki page on the phenomenon : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Light_pillar

More light pillars, this time in Alaska.

One wrote: "Alien abductions in Alaska," while another added: "THE END IS NIGH."


"Man, X-files really went all out for their premiere," said another.


One viewer quipped: "Andre The Giant's light saber."


"Looks like Tron defeated the MCP," wrote someone else.

http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/world-news/alien-abduction-beams-light-spark-7254526

 

[rynner2]

'Rare' light pillars spotted in sky over Rhigos mountain
12 March 2016

An experienced astronomer says he has caught on camera the "very rare" sight of light pillars in the night sky above south Wales.
The phenomenon, caused by atmospheric ice crystals reflecting light, was captured by Allan Trow above Rhigos mountain, Rhondda Cynon Taff.
He said light pillars were more common in polar regions.

Mr Trow, who has been stargazing for 20 years, said the sighting on Friday night was "spectacular".
The director of astronomy education company Dark Sky Wales was on the mountain near Treherbert with two other experienced astronomers and a group of amateur stargazers when the bright lights appeared at about 21:50 GMT.
He said they lasted at least 90 seconds, long enough for the astronomers to take a number of photographs.

"Between the three astronomers there, we have 80 years experience but it was the first time we had seen anything like it," said Mr Trow.
"We immediately went onto Facebook and Twitter and consulted with our astronomy friends to see what they could be. We discounted ideas such as as aurora and a meteor. But the conditions were right for light pillars.
"We were astonished. I've seen pictures of them from Scandinavia and Alaska but nothing from the UK."

He said his fellow astronomers believed the light reflected in the light pillars - which were visible to the naked eye - could have come from the Port Talbot steelworks which are just over the other side of the mountain.

The phenomenon comes in the same week stargazers across Wales saw the Aurora Borealis - better known as the Northern Lights.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-35793430

Another pic on page shows the pillars appeared in the constellation Orion.

 

[eburacum]

(Copied / Excerpted from the Robert Bigelow, NIDS & Ongoing UFO Evidence Collection thread)

Here's Robert Shaeffer's take on the Skinwalker show.
https://badufos.blogspot.com/2020/04/microwaves-dead-cows-and-light-pillars.html

... The image included in that article (taken from the show) is self-evidently a light-pillar, a well-known natural phenomenon which the series 'scientists' should have identified easily.

 

[Bigphoot2]

The icy weather has been producing some interesting effects

What are light pillars? The strange phenomena captured over Glasgow this week
Mysterious pillars of light appeared over the southside of the city, but what were they?



Mysterious pillars of light were spotted over Glasgow this week, prompting many to question if aliens were involved.
Steph Nixon shared a spectacular snap on Twitter of the bizarre lights, which he captured above his home in Croftfoot in the southside of Glasgow.
etc

https://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/scotland-now/what-light-pillars-strange-phenomena-23285966

 

[Kryptonite]

https://www.glasgowlive.co.uk/news/glasgow-news/mystery-lights-seen-over-glasgow-19579081

This is something I've never heard of before- light reflecting from columns of ice crystals suspended in the air. A beautiful, if slightly eerie and presumably rare sight. I kind of wish I'd braved the cold and been out and about to see them myself. Going to keep an eye out tonight to see if there's anything similar and hopefully get some pics.

 

[GNC]

I thought you meant those spotlights (like the Bat Signal) that some people shine at the clouds on occasional evenings.

 

[Ermintruder]

that some people shine at the clouds

Oh really, GNC? Tell us more!!

(Gordon, Neighbourhood Commissioner..... you've been rumbled!! Step away from that Bat-beam!!)

 

[GNC]

Oh really, GNC? Tell us more!!

(Gordon, Neighbourhood Commissioner..... you've been rumbled!! Step away from that Bat-beam!!)

*Adjusts glasses and strokes moustache* They're used at events to add a spot of dramatic spectacle, I've never seen one up close but they're shone on overcast nights around here sometimes. They're the new Chinese lanterns of false UFO reports.

 

[EnolaGaia]

Stunning light pillars dazzle in the northern US sky

Like something taken straight from a sci-fi movie, strange columns of light have been spotted recently across the northern United States, dancing up toward the night sky and mesmerizing viewers.

"It was almost like I was looking at the northern lights because they were bouncing, moving and changing in appearance," National Weather Service Meteorologist Bill Taylor told CNN when describing the photos of light pillars he took early this week in North Platte, Nebraska. ...

Light pillars form in colder climates when ice particles near the ground are light enough to remain suspended in the air. If conditions are calm, the hexagonally shaped ice particles can become vertically stacked as they slowly drift through the atmosphere. Like a giant mirror in the sky, the collective ice surfaces reflect a light source -- such as a street lamp, moonlight or sunlight -- toward the viewer.

"The higher the crystals in the atmosphere, the taller the pillar," according to the National Weather Service in La Crosse, Wisconsin.

Weather conditions need to be virtually wind-free, very stable and quite cold. ...

Although no specific temperature threshold has been determined for light pillar formation, the mercury in the thermometer at ground level is typically below 10 degrees Fahrenheit, according to the NWS. ...

FULL STORY: https://www.cnn.com/2021/02/10/weather/light-pillars-ice-cold-illuminate-trnd/index.html