A beautiful image of the light pillars illuminating the night sky over southwestern Canada is mesmerizing the people who are seeing it. The lights can be seen beaming between the snowy ground and the gray clouds.
Dar Tanner while posting the image on platform X (formerly known as Twitter) wrote, “Mind blowing light pillars in our little village of Alix, Alberta”. What appears to be a neat photography ploy is actually a stunning natural phenomenon.
These beautiful natural phenomena known as light pillars are columns of lights created when light from the earth’s surface reflects off of six-sided ice crystals that are present in the frozen clouds above.
According to Michael Kavulich of the National Center for Atmospheric Research, ice crystals in clouds settle horizontally during very calm conditions, like dinner plates laying flat.
They basically act as mirrors, which reflect light coming from streetlights and other sources shining on the ground to form a beam of light that is between the Earth and the sky. Moreover, light pillars can also be formed by sunlight.
A sun pillar is a column of light that forms when the sun peeks over the horizon at sunrise or sunset. This phenomenon is caused by sunlight reflecting off of “dinner plate” ice crystals in the clouds.
FAQs:
Q1. What are night pillars?
A1. Night pillars are natural phenomena that occur when lights on the earth’s surface reflect off of six-sided ice crystals found in the frozen clouds above.
Q2. Where were these night pillars seen?
A2. The night pillars were witnessed in a small village of Alix, Alberta.
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