Mysterious Columns of Light Baffle Scientists

Mysterious Columns of Light Baffle Scientists

my.nowpublic.com

Strange columns of light cannot be explained by the experts. Some say the phenomenon is caused simply by ice crystals and unusually low evening temperatures.

Others are not so sure.

(visit the link for the full news article)


Related News Links:
www.dailymail.co.uk

If nothing else, these light-columns are visually beautiful and strange looking.

If they are an atmospheric phenomenon related to ice-crystals and unusually low evening temperatures, as seems to be the developing 'official' position, why, as a resident of a northern American state with really cold winters, have I never seen anything even closely like this ?

Check out the Daily-Mail article for some pretty interesting hi-res photos.

my.nowpublic.com
(visit the link for the full news article)

I've personally seen these on 3 occassions. Once a few years back and the last two evenings on my way home from working an overnight shift.

They were stunning and disturbing the 1st time I saw them because unlike the photo in the article, I couldn't see the lightsource on the ground so it looked like a curtain of light pillars raining down from above.

I remember the 1st time I ran into my house and grabbed my camcorder and ran back outside, but they did not show up on the video. I was thinking something alien for sure but a little bit of internet research quickly explained the phenomenon.

Just found a couple more posts on this same topic here at ATS -

www.abovetopsecret.com...

www.abovetopsecret.com...

The first one is from two-weeks ago ...

You guys are good !

reply to post by BuffaloJoe

According to the Post article - it seems the phenomenon is not at all so easy to explain.

Evidently the 'curved' parts of the phenomenon, in some technical sense, does not make sense to the theoreticians.

Certainly, I am out of my depth here, so if you can cite the source which explains the phenomenon, this would be appreciated.

Here is a good source on the technical details.

Light Pillars

This article does not specifically address the broadening of the pillars though. It does mention that they can quickly disappear due to air currents.

I would presume the spreading out would be due to the crystal shapes changing geometry as a function of elevation.

Originally posted by visible_villain
...why, as a resident of a northern American state with really cold winters, have I never seen anything even closely like this ?

Because you have never had "ice crystals and low temperateres" before...

...apparently, anyway.

Not ruling out in could be something natural. I'm just so used to being lied to about everything, I have trouble believing "experts".

Especially when they admit they aren't sure.

[edit on 16/1/09 by NuclearPaul]

Thanks for the link, BuffaloJoe. I checked it out and didn't really get the impression they had any kind of a viable explanation. It seemed to me to be just a lot of talk about reflections and specific types of ice crystals.

This article also mentions 'sun-pillars,' something I first noticed at sunrise for the first time beginning back in about 2000. This then reminded me of another seemingly related phenomenon I began noticing back about then as well which were the so called 'sun-dogs,' and were, at least back then infrequently visible toward late afternoon in the western sky and are basically symmetric rainbow-like atmospheric 'flares' visible on each side of the sun, separated by 180 degrees. A line connecting these sundogs and the sun itself is roughly paralell to the horizon.

During the summer of 2008, just past, I noticed these sundogs usually several times a week, when conditions ( the presence of a hazy sky, basically ) were correct.

My own 'laymans' conclusion, admittedly based on little more than a gut-feeling, is that both these phenomena are due simply to a brightening sun - that is to say a sun putting out more and more power in the visible spectrum ( and, of course by extension, probably more power in other spectra as well, like x-ray for instance ) ...

Since the nighttime light-pillars are caused not from an extremely bright source like the sun, but result from the light energy supplied by street lamps, it seems to me this is primarly an atmospheric affect. Higher atmospheric density due to fluctuations in the gravitational field ? Some kind of magnetic phenomenon ... who knows ?

Anyway, your reference is the most info I've seen on these pillars yet, and it is appreciated.

NuclearPaul, your conjecture that we've never had enough ice-crystals in the air combined with low enough temperatures for these pillars to have occured where I live of course makes sense, but somehow seems to me to be just a little reminiscent of explaining away UFO sightings by obscure references to 'swamp-gas' , etc ... Just a little too 'convenient', I guess you might say.

I have a feeling you may have commented in the spirit of humor, and nothing more than that, so, very funny !

Thank you both for your comments !

I saw this article and the pictures on coasttocoast ams homepage yesterday and figured I would see it on ATS.

My first and lasting impression was in the form of a memory;

Some years ago in Sedona Arizona, I saw lights that looked 'exactly' like the ones pictured here however the ones I saw were NOT stationary. They moved across the sleeping town directly over the main hwy, from west to east direction on 89A.

The light would flash down with a resonate sound every 15 feet or so. The night was clear enough to see nothing above like a plane or helicopter and no other sounds could be heard other than the 'Whaawump' as it struck the ground. I will never forget it.

If I mention that I have just recently reread the first four Castaneda books, I probably needn't go on to explicitly state the first question which comes to mind, a question regarding the consumption of the severed tops of a certain species of small cactus which happens to be indigeneous to the Arizona desert ...

The story you relate sounds amazingly similar to some of the experiences Castaneda writes about, expecially in the first and second books.

Thanks for comment.

A Giant Breach in Earth's Magnetic Field

When I first saw these pics I instantly thought of the above article as they seem to vortexes of some kind and that is a fairly recent phenomenon. The images and illustrations of the breach seem to be consistent with a vortex in terms of energetic manifestation here on earth.

reply to post by antar


Man what a trip! You have any idea wtf that was? Making a sound too? Straaaaaange.

Well, having worked in audio visual for a long time, I have seen some pretty crazy custom gobos for lights that make really wild patterns. I've seen special ones made for a skytracker too in one case. And that was my first thought: skytracker with special gobos, cause at night you can see the beams. I wish the pictures showed the bottom, cause it looks almost as if light was eminating from down on the ground. The curved part though is tough to explain, so I don't think it's that any more. Never seen one of these, but wow. I could see how the kid thought the aliens were coming.

Very strsange looking, indeed, antar.

And, as far as the kid goes, as he grows older and older he will begin to understand, hopefully, that the aliens are not coming - they are already here !!!

reply to post by Shakesbeer

Whenever the subject of the earth's magnetic field comes up I find my own response is one of recalling the fact that the so called scientists have absolutely no idea what is causing it !

I find this absolutely amazing.

Then, certainly because of the way my own mind works in particular, I then muse on the fact of the recurring legends and myths about hollow planets and moons, how the earth rings for hours or days after an earthquake ... all that ...

So, proceeding onward with the 'workings of my own particular mind,' I feel that whatever 'sun changes' are currently underway, and it should be very obvious by now to anybody able to look at recent and current events that some kind of sun change is definately underway, these changes are probably affecting the 'nature' of 'local space' ...

These 'changes to local space' could be the basis of changes to 'local gravitation,' changes to the 'local magnetic field,' all that stuff ...

And since the scientists publicly state they do not understand gravitation or magnetism it does not seem strange to anybody that they remain silent about all this stuff ...

In a sense, things for the 'average man' are very much like those described in Baum's 'fantasy,' The Wizard of Oz ...

And, as experience has shown, it's extraordinarily difficult to change, or 'break out of' this status quo ...

...
So, proceeding onward with the 'workings of my own particular mind,' I feel that whatever 'sun changes' are currently underway, and it should be very obvious by now to anybody able to look at recent and current events that some kind of sun change is definately underway, these changes are probably affecting the 'nature' of 'local space'
...

If you have any pointers to information and any "heads up" stories that can give us some background or generally put us into perspective (other than the lately-oft-quoted NASA warning about sun-storms), I'd be glad if you shared it with us.

Thanks,

T

hi guys,
have just been busy on another thread and feel compelled to join here also.

I picked up on what visible_villian was saying..

My own 'laymans' conclusion, admittedly based on little more than a gut-feeling, is that both these phenomena are due simply to a brightening sun - that is to say a sun putting out more and more power in the visible spectrum ( and, of course by extension, probably more power in other spectra as well, like x-ray for instance )

now i do like you'r reasoning here but i am an avid sun watcher and am always keeing an eye on the sun-spot counts and the KP index and the solar flares and as of late the sun has been quiet; for some time I might add with no extra power coming off it.. true the sunspots have recently begun to emerge but as we are still coming out of solar minimum I really wouldn't attribute this phenomena to extra power coming off the sun because there has been no extra power that I have seen..

My gut feeling is we should be looking else-where for an answer..

peace
daz__

Originally posted by daz__My gut feeling is we should be looking else-where for an answer..

peace
daz__

How do you mean...?

daz said :
My gut feeling is we should be looking else-where for an answer.

I would like to hear your justification for this opinion, especially in light of the fact that even NASA itself, that bastion of scientific respectibility, states that other planets in our solar system are currently warming up as well.

For instance, check out www.newscientist.com... to get an idea of where I'm coming from ...

Go and find the area that they are 'refracting' on and sit down.

Meditate?

Maybe you will find answers there?

Seeing as these columns of light seem to be linked to the lights on the ground ins some way, it would seem some atmosphere, smog or something is affecting the lights to make them look this way.

Nevertheless beautiful