8 ms·
Unknown orange-red glow over Pacific Ocean
- kevinwang 12y agoThe comments below the post are mostly toxic.
- tommoor 12y agoYou're telling me this isn't the US government conducting top secret experiments to control the weather?!
- lotsofmangos 12y agoWell, probably not the bit about the weather - http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/experimental-us-hypersonic-weapon-explodes-four-seconds-after-test-launch-in-alaska-9690586.html http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/experimenta...
- Intermernet 12y agoThis earthquake (MB4.6 Kuril Islands, Aug. 24, 2014, 9:45 p.m. UTC) matches closely to the time and location, but it doesn't really explain the claimed observations. http://www.iris.edu/ds/nodes/dmc/tools/event/4768132 http://www.iris.edu/ds/nodes/dmc/tools/event/4768132
- Robelius 12y agoThe red/orange might of been the effects of a volcano. Just speculating though, since it wouldn't explain the lack of ash.
- deleted 12y ago[deleted]
- fla 12y agoTo me, it doesn't : http://www.iris.edu/ieb/index.html?format=text&nodata=404&starttime=2014-02-25&endtime=2015-02-20&minmag=0&maxmag=10&mindepth=0&maxdepth=900&orderby=time-desc&limit=800&maxlat=51.617&minlat=39.266&maxlon=173.672&minlon=155.875&sbl=1&pbl=1&caller=evpage&evid=4768132&zm=5&mt=ter http://www.iris.edu/ieb/index.html?format=text&nodata=404&st... The plane was travelling more south that these dots.
- eric_bullington 12y agoI'm hoping a resident atmospheric scientist and/or geologist will show up with answers. There's probably a very good explanation for the (electrical?) bolt of light that he saw at first and the green color of the night sky, and I'd bet almost anything that both have to do with submarine volcanic eruptions.
- codezero 12y agoI think the answers about it being an underwater lava formation sound reasonable. If it were in/around a cloud, and maybe a bit more transient, I'd be tempted to say it was a red sprite: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sprite_(lightning) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sprite_(lightning) Sprites/elves are my favorite atmospheric effect :)
- dnautics 12y agoI asked my vulcanologist friend and she said it could not be underwater lava.
- eric_bullington 12y agoMaybe she would write a blog post about it?
- geoffsanders 12y agoConsidering lava cools and darkens almost immediately under water, I'd imagine it would have to be an incredibly epic underwater eruption (and thus, detectible) for that much light to make its way through that much water and project itself onto the clouds above that location. Also, the light should diffuse as it makes its way through water, air, and onto the clouds above, so the seemingly neat circles of light don't seem to match up with a sea floor-based light source either.
- idlewords 12y agoThe light would also be much bluer if it had passed through any significant quanitity of seawater. Red light attenuates very fast.
- madaxe_again 12y agoNot necessarily lava. Could be a pumice raft which had enough latent heat after floating up to re-ignite. Clutching at straws.
- windsurfer 12y agoHere's an aerial picture of fishing boats near Thailand: http://i.imgur.com/kvOF9nL.jpg http://i.imgur.com/kvOF9nL.jpg The pattern seems similar.
- wdewind 12y agoI'm sorry, what? The two look nothing alike: http://m1.i.pbase.com/g9/23/582523/2/157113241.BeCtINyg.jpg http://m1.i.pbase.com/g9/23/582523/2/157113241.BeCtINyg.jpg
- jrmiii 12y agoConsidering the photog cranked up the iso and ran a 30sec exposure, i'd imagine the variability could produce some strange effects. This is also shot through clouds.
- Zancarius 12y agoI'm trying to find where you and others are getting this notion of a 30 second exposure. The watermark on the picture appears to claim 8 seconds and there's nothing else on the site that indicates much more than 8 seconds. Was the post edited at some point?
- radnor 12y agoThis picture's watermark claims it was a 30 second exposure: http://www.pbase.com/flying_dutchman/image/157113240 http://www.pbase.com/flying_dutchman/image/157113240
- Zancarius 12y agoAh, I missed that one. Although it also appears to be much more distant in that shot, hence the (possible?) reason for a longer exposure. It's interesting to note that the closer shot is an 8 second exposure, though I'm not sure what bearing that might have.
- 12y ago
- deleted 12y ago[deleted]
- gazaleon 12y agoFrom Wikipedia — "Earthquake light is an unusual luminous aerial phenomenon that reportedly appears in the sky at or near areas of tectonic stress, seismic activity, or volcanic eruptions." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earthquake_light http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earthquake_light Considering there were reports of seismic activity in the area around the approximate time of the event, it's possible that ionized air promoted formation of sprites and/or ball lightning.
- glifchits 12y agoIs it just me or do those hypotheses sound like the mechanics of a cartoon villain's evil plan?
- ebilgenius 12y agoI know that's what I'd do if I were evil and a genius. Which I'm not.
- geoffsanders 12y agoWhile earthquake light does seem like one of the better explanations, the length of time it was observed (>30 min) would make it one of the longest observed earthquake light sightings.
- deleted 12y ago[deleted]
- deleted 12y ago[deleted]
- dperfect 12y agohttp://www.pbase.com/flying_dutchman/image/157113241 http://www.pbase.com/flying_dutchman/image/157113241 I could be wrong, but I think it would be almost impossible to capture an 8-second exposure while flying and somehow manage to keep the stars from becoming light trails - at least not without some very serious camera stabilization equipment. Since the photographer didn't seem to mention anything special used for taking the photos, I'm inclined to say they've been 'shopped.
- fowkswe 12y agoOr 30 seconds for that matter. http://www.pbase.com/flying_dutchman/image/157113240 http://www.pbase.com/flying_dutchman/image/157113240
- colanderman 12y agoHave you ever looked at the moon while driving? It stays in the same position relative to the car, if the car is not turning. Plane on autopilot + camera steadied by plane body + fisheye lens (which he was using) makes this very believable. EDIT: not to mention, we are all hurtling around the Earth at around 1,000 miles per hour AS WE SPEAK. If that doesn't produce trails (it doesn't, see my math below), a few extra hundred MPH in a plane doesn't change jack squat.
- dperfect 12y agoSorry, I still don't believe it. Even with a fisheye lens and an incredibly stable aircraft, you're still going to see trails. If you don't believe me, I invite you to try it. EDIT: I assume all the downvoters can provide us with links to their libraries of long-exposure, night aerial photography without using gyros?
- colanderman 12y agoSee my edit. The only trails you will see are due to the rotation of the earth; not the movement of the plane. EDIT: MATH: Assume the horizontal FOV is ~90 degrees (conservative according to Wikipedia). 30 (time) seconds around the Earth is (90/360)/(24x60x60/30) = 1/720 of that field. Meaning, you'd need a 720 px image to even see one PIXEL of blur due to the rotation of the Earth. The additional velocity of the plane contributes MUCH LESS than this; hence it is not visible.
- deleted 12y ago[deleted]
- waynemr 12y agoViral marketing for Cloverfield 2 or Pacific Rim 2?
- kghose 12y agoI don't understand how, with an 8s exposure from a moving vehicle, the photos have perfect stars. There should be streaking.
- colanderman 12y agoSee my explanation here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8225519 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8225519 (TLDR: consider (a) how the moon does not appear to move when viewed from a car moving in a straight line, and (b) that the surface of the Earth is constantly moving at ~1,000 MPH.)
- lutorm 12y agoAn 8s exposure with a 10mm lens will not show trails at the resolutions shown there.
- windsurfer 12y agoNo, planes don't rotate much when flying - it would be inefficient. Also, it is using a 10mm lens.
- jdpage 12y agoTurns out that stars are really friggin' far away, so with a nice steady plane and some stabilization equipment, you're not going to get enough parallax for streaking to occur.
- kghose 12y agoHi, streaking is not necessarily due to parallax. It's due to movement of the camera and or movement of the earth. (Try taking a hand held long exposure of the stars, for example). I guess for that 8s the plan was very stable (no rolling/pitching) AND the focal length is short enough and the resolution low enough the streakiness is masked. I'm still impressed by the amount of stars he captured.
- michaelsbradley 12y agoEarthquake Alarm: Impending earthquakes have been sending us warning signals--and people are starting to listen http://spectrum.ieee.org/computing/hardware/earthquake-alarm http://spectrum.ieee.org/computing/hardware/earthquake-alarm "A light or glow in the sky sometimes heralds a big earthquake. On 17 January 1995, for example, there were 23 reported sightings in Kobe, Japan, of a white, blue, or orange light extending some 200 meters in the air and spreading 1 to 8 kilometers across the ground. Hours later a 6.9-magnitude earthquake killed more than 5500 people..."
- ruloo 12y agohooray earthquake history. If he is talking about aug 23/24th 2014 there were 3 earthquakes over ~24 hours. Im not educated on earthquakes. Just an interesting footnote for a mystery. http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/eventpage/nc72282711#summary http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/eventpage/nc72282711#... http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/eventpage/usb000s5rc#summary http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/eventpage/usb000s5rc#... http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/eventpage/usb000s5x1#summary http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/eventpage/usb000s5x1#...
- pittsburgh 12y agoA possible explanation from a 2003 paper is Electron Holes ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electron_hole http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electron_hole ) "Rocks That Crackle and Sparkle and Glow: Strange Pre-Earthquake Phenomena" http://www.scientificexploration.org/journal/jse_17_1_freund.pdf http://www.scientificexploration.org/journal/jse_17_1_freund... [PDF]
- EGreg 12y agoUnderwater volcano is quite possible near a subduction zone. Were they flying over one?
- spiritplumber 12y agoIs this where we start building giant robots in preparation for the giant monsters that will appear? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fupWquPNoTc https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fupWquPNoTc No, because that would kick all sorts of ass.
- callmeed 12y agoBrowsing the various discussions on Reddit, the most plausible explanation is (IMO) fleets of squid fishing boats. http://www.reddit.com/r/EverythingScience/comments/2eiv1g/pilots_observe_unknown_orangered_glow_over/ http://www.reddit.com/r/EverythingScience/comments/2eiv1g/pi...
- seszett 12y agoAs he says, it's really not the right hue (red light for fishing squid would make no sense anyway, since it wouldn't travel very far in water).
- madaxe_again 12y agoNah, they use white/blue lights - definitely not orange!
- brianstorms 12y agoThere was a quake right nearby where the pilot saw this phenomena. Relation? http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/eventpage/usb000s5wm#summary http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/eventpage/usb000s5wm#... I wish the pilot had indicated exact UTC time the phenom happened. Hard to pinpoint but nevertheless, his position and the quake's position are quite close, even if the two events were hours apart.
- nattaggart 12y agoIt looks like UTC time is indicated in the watermarks. 11:17 - 11:24 UTC.
- sitkack 12y agoExcellent find
- astigsen 12y agoWhen the earthquake hit California there was also people reporting seeing a blue light. Some examples here: http://abcnews.go.com/US/northern-california-struck-60-magnitude-earthquake/story?id=25101008#comment-1556788122 http://abcnews.go.com/US/northern-california-struck-60-magni...
- dredmorbius 12y agoPossibly transformer explosions?
- nether 12y agoThese are hostile... Why must we meddle?
- fuzzywalrus 12y agoWell played, sir. One internet point for you.
- elijahparker 12y agoThe lights in the ocean are a mystery to me, but the green light in the sky would be airglow (1). I've seen it many times, even stronger than in the op's photos. I don't believe there's any connection between the sky and the ocean lights. 1: http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Airglow http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Airglow
- McCoy_Pauley 12y agoGOJIRA!!!
- richardwigley 12y agoMysterious lightning flashes that appear to precede earthquakes could be sparked by movements in the ground below, US scientists say. ... "Our first suspicion was this has got to be a mistake. There must be something stupid we are doing," said Professor Troy Shinbrot, of Rutgers University, New Jersey. "We took a tupperware container filled with flour, tipped it back and forth until cracks appeared, and it produced 200 volts of charge. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-26462348 http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-26462348
- 3rd3 12y agoWouldn't the water 'absorb' the charge?
- vanderZwan 12y agoYou mean be conductive enough to discharge it? Depends on how pure the water is: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electrical_resistivity_and_conductivity#In_ionic_liquids.2Felectrolytes http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electrical_resistivity_and_cond...
- knodi123 12y agowe're talking about ocean water, though. an excellent conductor.
- CucumberLime 12y agoWow, those stars are amazing at altitude and with no light pollution, I wish the passengers could see up too (and also without a nose-greased, scratched-up plastic in between).
- yangyang 12y agoJust wait for the plane to turn.
- Sharlin 12y agoThose photos are eight to thirty second exposures at f/2.8 and ISO >10k - there's a lot more light in the pictures than a human eye can ever gather. I'm sure the sky would still look pretty epic to a completely dark-adjusted eye, though.
- davidw 12y agoGuy has a lot of other nice pictures: St. Elmo's fire: http://www.pbase.com/flying_dutchman/image/156304671 http://www.pbase.com/flying_dutchman/image/156304671 Northern lights from inside the cockpit: http://www.pbase.com/flying_dutchman/image/155775399 http://www.pbase.com/flying_dutchman/image/155775399
- mcguire 12y agoThe aurora looks like the majority of its glow is below the aircraft? It's green, so wikipedia implies it's oxygen at a relatively lower level, but I didn't think it was below 30,000 feet.
- nnq 12y agoR'lyeh is rising, of course. Heil Cthulhu!
- narrator 12y agoThere was a mysterious giant crack in the earth in Mexico last Friday. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/08/22/giant-crack-in-mexico-video_n_5699362.html http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/08/22/giant-crack-in-mexi...
- scarygliders 12y agoLooks like a fault line/tectonic plate movement, to me.
- madaxe_again 12y agoHow about mid-oceanic methane flares lit by lightning? Would explain the initial flashes and the incandescent look of the lights.
- Fragment 12y agoWell, the comments are interesting... "You, Sir, have caught some absolutely breathtaking photos of POSITIVE ET'S AND THEIR CRAFT CLEANING UP THE FUKUSHIMA RADIATION AND SAVING THE PLANET AND IT'S ECOSYSTEM FROM SURE ANNHILATION!...It is QUITE OBVIOUS WHAT THOSE LIGHTS ARE, MY "SILLY WABBITS"!!!"
- lotsofmangos 12y agoFlying towards Alaska south of the Kamchatka peninsula... I bet he saw this hypersonic vehicle being blown up and the lights from a massive observation fleet. http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/experimental-us-hypersonic-weapon-explodes-four-seconds-after-test-launch-in-alaska-9690586.html http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/experimenta... "An experimental hypersonic weapon developed to reach targets anywhere in the world within an hour has been destroyed by the US military four seconds after its launch for “public safety”. The test in Alaska in the early hours of Monday morning was aborted after controllers detected a problem with the system, the Pentagon said, and the launcher is believed to have detonated before the missile was deployed."
- chippy 12y agoI think this has hit it on the nose. It also fits in with his earlier observation of the launch or crash (but no photos) "Then, very far in the distance ahead of us, just over the horizon an intense lightflash shot up from the ground. It looked like a lightning bolt, but way more intense and directed vertically up in the air. " Bravo sir!
- deleted 12y ago[deleted]
- lotsofmangos 12y agoThe timing seems right, they were firing south, and that photo from The Independent matches his description very well. edit - I've posted the suggestion to his blog thingy, am going to keep an eye to see what the Flying Dutchman makes of it, if anything. Also, is a suitable handle really, given the context.
- jeletonskelly 12y agoWhile there is a chance it was an observation fleet, the prototype itself was aborted during takeoff, so it's unlikely it was light from the prototype itself: “The weapon exploded during takeoff and fell back down in the range complex.”
- Blahah 12y agoNobody seems to have considered a biological explanation. What about a tide of bioluminescent bacteria or algae? Typically these emit blue light and are known, in the case of bacteria, as the 'milky seas effect'[0]. But algal tides sometimes bioluminesce red or orange. With a high local concentration of nitrogen or another limiting nutrient (which might upswell from the seabed due seismic activity below) you might get extremely high concentrations leading to the patterns shown in the photograph. 0: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milky_seas_effect http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milky_seas_effect
- grmarcil 12y agoOne of the commenters on his site mentioned bioluminescence. It seems unlikely to me that such an effect could produce the intensity of light required to project the pattern he saw onto clouds at 30k+ feet though.
- Blahah 12y agoI thought the light in the sky was well explained by the seismic phenomenon.
- xsace 12y agoIf it was something natural, people (pilots) would be used to it by now. He's describing something "unknown and creepy"
- Blahah 12y agoNatural does not mean common. It's just as likely that it's an uncommon biological phenomenon as it is as uncommon physical phenomenon.
- colanderman 12y agoDoesn't explain the explosion beforehand.
- moron4hire 12y agoAt first, I thought this might have been an announcement for a spin-off of "Welcome to Night Vale." If you're not familiar, it's a fiction podcast that presents itself as a community announcement hour on the town of Night Vale's public radio station. There was a particular story arc involving a sentient, glowing cloud that descended on town and demanded to be made a part of the city council. It's free, and it's cute. If you like such things, check it out. http://commonplacebooks.com/ http://commonplacebooks.com/
- vegancap 12y agoI'd hazard a guess that the recent volcanic activity, there was probably ash in the air? Especially with a recent earthquake. Red light photons move stronger than other colours in the spectrum don't they? I have no idea... looks amazing though.
- NextPerception 12y agoChinese lanterns from a cruise ship maybe. Someone should check to see if any were in the area.
- jonifico 12y agoI'm sticking to the theory saying it is volcanic material. I mean, it's common sense. Now, when it comes to the northern lights, I wouldn't be so sure. Maybe a reaction caused by the volcanic material reaching out to the sky? It must've been an immense explosion for it to do that, though.
- atlantic 12y agoI'm surprised no-one has suggested weather balloons.
- jusben1369 12y agoPretty sure this lines up with the US military launching then immediately destroying a new weaponry system in Alaska: http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/08/25/us-usa-military-hypersonic-idUSKBN0GP1ED20140825 http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/08/25/us-usa-military-hy...