"Rain of Luminous Beams" appears in the sky

I'm jealous to not have been there to see this phenomenon. The effects are quite beautiful. That aside ...

Based on the photograph, I suspect these to be pillars. It's a cause and effect of, like eNumbra said, ice crystals.

Pillars
"Artificial" Light Pillars
via Atmosphere Optics & OpticsPOD

Below is a screencapture from Atmospheric Optics explaining how we see it with our eyes:


Here's a photograph of light pillars in Alaska:


I hope the images can be scrolled horizontally as to not take up too much screen real estate.

I would love to see these in person. I can see how they can be interpreted as something magical.



reply to post by witchfinder




I'm not sure if this is the video you're talking about. But if it is, then this is a perfect example of the artificial light pillars. It looks awesome through night vision!



reply to post by Agent_USA_Supporter


Such a well and thought out retort! Like eNumbra said, care to back that up? What are your facts, sir? We've provided the evidence to what we believe it is, now provide yours.

[edit on 15-7-2010 by ZeeSquared]

What am I missin' here?
How do dozens (up to 50) last an hour? Were they in really slow-motion? Or only coming down a couple at a time?

Perhaps the word 'rain' isn't the best adjective.
Maybe, fell? Sprinkled? But rain??

Strange in any event.

reply to post by ZeeSquared


It's possible but just because it resembles something science defines doesn't necessarily give it a Carte Blanche explanation.

If we're dealing with people who are controlling the weather and sending up payloads of who knows what in their satellites and spraying our skies with 'whatever' and owns and operates HAARP and is involved with a space-war program then, who the hell knows what else is going on up there.

Space is 'their' play ground. We're just spectators (and possible victims) of whatever TPTB are doing.

After all, tricking people in plain sight and under our noses seems to be their forte!

It's just so absurd that if things don't fall under a scientific umbrella then it's deemed a conspiracy, myth or paranoia. I love how this life works!

reply to post by Agent_USA_Supporter


If you lived in an area that had these regularly you would recognize them right away and you would probably giggle at most of the posts here so far. I have the pleasure of living in such a place. We see light pillars whenever it is really cold and there is no wind. If the picture had shown the streetlights on the ground that are associated with each pillar you would recognize what is happening right away. The image is a classic example of ice crystal (or sometimes dust) caused light pillars.

reply to post by ZeeSquared


Cheers for that mate. Yes that is the video I was refering to. Looks like your explanation has hit the nail on the head though. Thanks again.

Originally posted by Korg Trinity
Very interesting...

Though this looks to have had post production done on it??

Is this the real pic or just the new papers interpretation??

[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/ca777f72f487.jpg[/atsimg]

Korg.

I'm certainly no photography expert (far from it), but it reminds me of a single image taken from a selection 'time-lapse' photography ... because if you look at the people they look blurred as if there was fast movement when the picture was taken.

If it is time-lapse then the 'beams' might be regular stars that provide a strange effect caused by shutter speed.

As I said ... I'm no expert and I really don't know what I'm talking about ... but that was the first thing that came into my head when I saw the picture.

Woody

Ice Crystals in mid July .....maybe on the north pole, but Xiamen is only 24° N of the equator on the Southeast China coastline.

en.wikipedia.org...

reply to post by zzombie


You'll take note that they form in the atmosphere, not on the ground.

Temperature in the air can vary greatly.

reply to post by eNumbra


I agree, Anyone who has been on flights in summer is familiar with the pilot announcing sub zero temperatures at high altitudes, or seeing it on the flight status display.

As someone who points a thermal imager at the sky on a regular basis I am familiar with these temperatures too.


Here is a reasonable example:

This image was taken a few days ago at 11:30PM. Looking at the temperature of the tree extremities shows that the air temp at ground level is around +16 degrees Celsius. The cloud is at around -14 degrees Celsius, and the sky at the top of the image is at around -24 degrees Celsius.

[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/66ab4d150f62.jpg[/atsimg]

Here is the raw image with the temperature data embedded for each pixel:

[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/fc9ecdb36798.jpg[/atsimg]

Edit to repair image size.

[edit on 16-7-2010 by dainoyfb]

thats definitely just a long exposure photo, just like the photo in my avatar. if i, like the posted photo, had not used long exposure then the photo would have been black, long exposure is necessary in dark light, the photo in my avater was taken at midnight, the glowing lines of light in the photo are just cars going by, an example of long exposure effects. not many cameras have this feature unless you shell out more cash for higher quality, that would explain why they only got the one photo,

could be the ice crystal explanation, im unsure, its seems like it wouldnt have lasted an hour if that was the case, but i dont know.

Originally posted by zzombie
Ice Crystals in mid July

.....maybe on the north pole, but Xiamen is only 24° N of the equator on the Southeast China coastline.

en.wikipedia.org...

IT depends how high up they are the temperature is not the same as on the ground or have you NEVER been in a plane and heard what the temperatures are at altitude

Here are dozens of examples of light pillars:
Light Pillars
They happen many times a year where I live. They are so vivid that often you don't need a time exposure. Their altitude depends on where the high moister layers are at the time and they can last from minutes to hours depending on when the wind carries the crystals away, much like fog. There is nothing unexplained or exoteric about this natural phenomenon. It is pretty obvious when you are standing under them and they match the exact color and position over the ground as the street light they are coming from.

Edit for typo

[edit on 18-7-2010 by dainoyfb]

Sounds like it could be light pilkars, caused by ice crystals in the atmosphere reflecting lights from the ground. They also occur during sunrises and sunsets, where the sun has an individual pillar over it

en.wikipedia.org...

www.astronet.ru...