Tuesday, April 28, 2020

If I saw this in real life I'd be, frankly, a bit frightened.

This “dancing” light from r/blackmagicfuckery



The explanation: The current hypothesis for why the phenomenon occurs is that sunlight is reflecting off or refracting through tiny ice crystals above the crown of a cumulonimbus cloud. These ice crystals are aligned by the strong electro-magnetic effects around the cloud, so the effect may appear as a tall streamer, pillar of light, or resemble a massive flash of a searchlight / flashlightbeam through the clouds. When the electro-magnetic field is disturbed by electrical charging or discharges (typically, lightning flashes) within the cloud, the ice crystals are re-orientated causing the light pattern to shift, at times very rapidly and appearing to 'dance' in a strikingly mechanical fashion.

5 comments:

  1. Nature beats the crap out of us all the time with electromagnetics, so it's nice to see her drop a little beauty on us from time to time to make up for all the blood, sweat, and tears she drew.

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  2. according to Project Bluebook that was due to atmospheric inversions.

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    Replies
    1. I read Project Bluebook. Tape a dime to a postcard and send it to those same folks that sent you a model of the entire launch complex at Cape Canaveral, or a large model of the Gemini capsule. They sent back a book with an actual baby blue cover.

      Rick

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  3. "Alright, Beatrice, there was no alien. That flash of light that you think you saw in the sky was not a UFO. Swamp gas from a weather balloon was trapped in a thermal pocket and reflected the light from Venus." - The Men in Black

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