It is very interesting and funny when you first learned about various interesting, famous places, phenomena on the Internet through articles and photographs, and then saw it “live” with your own eyes!
Yesterday we were standing with the guys in Murmansk on the main square "Five Corners" and suddenly one of them said, look, the searchlights on the building are shining on the square, but it seems that the light hits the sky like a column. See right in the middle of the photo? And then I remember that we have already discussed this natural phenomenon, which is characteristic of the Arctic Circle.
It seems to be scientifically called this - light columns and explained from a scientific point of view like this …
Just in case, we looked around and found more light columns in the other direction. Because we were standing in a sufficiently lit place - not very clearly visible here:
Here I made a small video showing these light columns:
And now, nevertheless, in more detail with more striking examples:
Promotional video:
Pillars of light rush into the night sky. It may seem as if the forces of an alien invasion have directed their rays of light down at us to take over our small planet, but in fact this is a purely natural phenomenon. And all that is needed to achieve this amazing special effect is light and water.
This is one of the most beautiful phenomena in the atmosphere. Especially in cities where there are many light sources of different colors. A prerequisite for the appearance of light columns is a low temperature (from –20 C), no wind and the presence of a large number of ice crystals in the atmosphere. Ice crystals, in turn, should be predominantly flat (diamond-shaped). When dropped in the air, they will try to take a horizontal position and begin to work like small mirrors.
The light pole looks like a narrow column rising vertically upward and / or descending downward from the light source, and it really looks like a kind of transport beam, especially if it happens at night and is caused by exposure to artificial light.