Interesting lights

[JTsyo]

Unusal lights

If you guys have an ideas, there's a link to a discussion about what might be causing this at the page.

 

[Cogman]

Im going to have to guess that it is a combination of the light acting like a lens of some sort, and the changing density of the ice as it goes up. My guess is that the thinner layer of ice on the top causes the light to fan out while the thicker ice in the center is causing the lights to stay relatively focused.

 

[crazychicken]

Looks similar to the Aurora Borealis (The northern lights). You may look into that to see if there are similarities.

Dave

 

[Cogman]

Originally posted by: crazychicken
Looks similar to the Aurora Borealis (The northern lights). You may look into that to see if there are similarities.

Dave

No way. Aurora Borealis is caused by EM radiation from the sun striking where the atmosphere is thin. This is clearly caused by lights from the ground. It can also be assumed that the foggy Ice stuff has a role as the light dissipates near the point where it exits.

 

[firewolfsm]

They all fan out at the same altitude so it has something to do with the refractive properties of the ice. I think I agree with Cogman saying it's a lower density environment uptop, also, the colder air could be altering the properties of the ice.

 

[stevf]

How about an inversion layer - could that cause the such a change in density of the ice crystals like that?

Also FYI - that site changes pictures daily so if somebody wants to see the original one you need to use the link at the top of that page and select the appropriate one after that

 

[TuxDave]

http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap090112.html

This one? Took me a while to figure out that I was looking at the wrong picture.

Edit: Stolen from another user from that thread but it may be due to this:
http://www.atoptics.co.uk/fz161.htm

 

[BladeVenom]

Photoshop