Who or what shines from the cloud as a «spotlight»
The rarest phenomenon — «dancing rays» in the daytime sky — was observed recently in Florida (USA). The riddle of their appearance at the request of «MK» was «solved» by specialists from the Institute of Atmospheric Optics of the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences. It turns out that it's all about the electric charge that accumulates and moves in the cloud.
When «dancing rays» appear in the sky, which an ordinary person can only compare with the fact that someone has placed a spotlight in the clouds and shines them in different directions – many fall into a stupor. This phenomenon is indeed unlike anything we have known before. Many scientists themselves do not fully understand the mechanism of such optical «shows», and therefore there are many who want to connect the unusual spectacle with the signals of alien creatures.
To understand this difficult issue, we phoned the leading researcher of the Institute of Optics atmosphere to them. V.E. Zuev SB RAS, Doctor of Physical and Mathematical Sciences, Head of the Laboratory of Electromagnetic Wave Scattering Alexander Konoshonkin.
– This is the so-called Crown flash effect – «Flash Corona», – explains Alexander Vladimirovich. – It belongs to poorly studied phenomena, since it is very rarely observed from the ground: most often the cloud itself blocks the rays from the observer. In the video that is circulating on the Internet these days, we observe a rare case when the effect occurs at the edge of the cloud, and the observer sees it.
The essence of the «dancing beam», according to Konoshonkin, is that a cumulus creates a strong electrical charge, but not strong enough to discharge into lightning. In order to «grow» out of the cloud a light beam, which many compare with a searchlight, one more condition is needed: the presence of a cirrus cloud above, above the cumulus.
– Then, under the action of an electric charge, the ice crystals in the cirrus cloud line up in a straight line and shine like a single mirror, – the scientist explains. – Approximately the same thing happens in an ordinary halo. But since the charge in the cloud moves quickly, the “mirror” also moves after it. from crystals.