SIGNS IN THE HEAVENS: Weather Phenomenon - RARE "Light Pillars" Seen Over Fairbanks, Alaska!

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.

Image Credit & Copyright: Allisha Libby

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.

WEATHER PHENOMENON: Signs In The Heavens - RARE "Light Pillars" Photographed Over North Vernon, Indiana!

© Travis Branum

December 7, 2015 - INDIANA, UNITED STATES - Travis Branum from North Vernon shared these beautiful, but eerie photos of giant vertical beams of colored light that appeared over North Vernon Indiana early this morning.

So what is it?

These are called "light pillars" and are pretty rare around these parts.

What caused it?

Light pillars are created through the reflection of light off of numerous tiny ice crystals .

According to Wikipedia:

"The crystals responsible for light pillars usually consist of flat, hexagonal plates, which tend to orient themselves more or less horizontally as they fall through the air.

Their collective surfaces act as a giant mirror, which reflects the light source upwards and/or downwards into a virtual image.

As the crystals are disturbed by turbulence the angle of their surfaces deviates some degrees from the horizontal orientation, causing the reflection (i.e. the light pillar) to become elongated into a column.

The larger the crystals, the more pronounced this effect becomes. More rarely, column-shaped crystals can cause light pillars as well"

The combination of a dense fog and air temperatures in the 20's allowed the water droplets in the fog to freeze into ice crystals allowing the phenomenon to occur.

© Travis Branum

© Travis Branum

This same combo of dense fog and subfreezing temps also contributed to the formation of widespread hoar frost and rime ice.

It made for a neat scene this morning in many locations. - WDRB.