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Nope, this is not the Northern Lights This light phenomenon was Stockholmers to look up in the sky and think that they ended up in the Arctic Circle last night. But there is no aurora - it's called light pillars. Photo: READER PICTURE A light phenomena of Solna region has puzzled over Sunday evening. 50th century images have been received by Aftonbladet and on Twitter speculated in what it can depend on. Some say the northern lights. But here is the answer - light pillars. And google results in English should search the "light pillars". - It is the light that is reflected in ice crystals that form in the air when it is cold now, says Joseph Runbäck, meteorologist at SMHI. He saw himself a related phenomenon on Sunday when he took a walk. - What I saw was a traditional halo effect that occurs when sunlight breaks through ice crystals and mirrored, says Joseph Runbäck. At night, the phenomenon can occur because the moon or artificial light sources shone, for example streetlights. "The color may vary depending on the light source color. Although the intensity may be different at different heights because the amount of ice crystals can vary with height and orientation of the crystals and purity "writes SMHI on their site. - I was hoping it would be aurora although I felt that it was impossible, says Lena looked pillars from his balcony in Frösunda. Northern lights on the other hand are formed by particle radiation from the sun, which in contact with the Earth's atmosphere creates undulating light phenomena in the sky, writes SMHI.
Columns of light apparently beaming directly upwards from unshielded (and wastefully polluting) lights are sometimes visible during very cold weather. Plate shaped ice crystals, normally only present in high clouds, float in the air close to the ground and their horizontal facets reflect light back downwards.
The pillars are not physically over the lights or anywhere else in space for that matter ~ like all halos they are purely the collected light beams from all the millions of crystals which just happen to be reflecting light towards your eyes or camera.
Unlike the crystals producing sun pillars, those making tall artificial light pillars need not be strongly tilted. The column producing pillars are approximately midway between the eye and the light source. The higher the crystals in the atmsphere, the taller is the pillar. When the crystals are very high - or the light sources are close - the pillars seem to radiate from overhead, the zenith.
Light pillars appear when artificial light (shown in diagram above) or natural light bounces off the facets of flat ice crystals wafting relatively close to the ground.
Originally posted by eNumbra
google translate; it's awesome.