"The red lights are from wind turbines around the Canadian island Ile Parisienne," explains Brady. Other colors correspond to high pressure sodium lamps (warm orange) and modern LED lamps (blue-white).
Light pillars are a common sight at northern latitudes, especially when freezing winter air fills with crystals of ice. Normally, however, light pillars spring up from the ground where the urban lights are located. "These were floating high above the ground," notes Brady. "That must have been where the ice crystals were on this early autumn night."
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