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| Image Credit & Copyright: Allisha Libby |
February 8, 2016 - FAIRBANKS, ALASKA - What's happening behind those houses?
Pictured here are not auroras but nearby light pillars, a nearby phenomenon that can appear as a distant one.
In most places on Earth, a lucky viewer can see a Sun-pillar, a column of light appearing to extend up from the Sun caused by flat fluttering ice-crystals reflecting sunlight from the upper atmosphere.
Usually these ice crystals evaporate before reaching the ground.
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| Image Credit & Copyright: Allisha Libby |
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| Image Credit & Copyright: Allisha Libby |
During freezing temperatures, however, flat fluttering ice crystals may form near the ground in a form of light snow, sometimes known as a crystal fog.
These ice crystals may then reflect ground lights in columns not unlike a Sun-pillar.
The featured image was taken in Fort Wainwright near Fairbanks in central Alaska.
- NASA.
