Explanation:
What’s happening across that field? Pictured here are not auroras but nearby light pillars, a phenomenon typically much closer.
In most places on Earth, a lucky viewer can see a Sun pillar, a column of light appearing to extend up from the Sun caused by flat fluttering ice-crystals reflecting sunlight from the upper atmosphere.
Usually, these ice crystals evaporate before reaching the ground.
During freezing temperatures, however, flat fluttering ice crystals may form near the ground in a form of light snow sometimes known as a crystal fog.
These ice crystals may then reflect ground lights in columns not unlike a Sun pillar.
The featured image was taken last month across the Wulan Butong Grasslands in
Inner Mongolia, China.
Never miss me! Subscribe for free. My Huge Radar has real-time weather tracking, current temperatures, and severe weather watches and warnings. Get detailed Indiana conditions by clicking here. Click here to see my central Indiana 7-Day Forecast. Follow these links to get my forecasts for Lafayette, Muncie, Hendricks County, and Hamilton County. Need a second opinion? Click here for central Indiana National Weather Service forecasts. (Some charts via WeatherBELL.)