So, I was out in the garden late last night, watching the clouds moving across the sky, mid-level cumulus clouds at a base of about 3000ft, and as I watched I saw something unusual. There was a luminosity, circular in shape that appeared to be coming from behind the clouds some distance away to the North of my position. It looked as though there was something above the clouds that was causing them to be illuminated, and it was moving. I'm on a flight path, and periodically the planes will come in with their collision lights on and in the right atmospheric conditions this can illuminate the clouds but in a totaly different way. The perceived movement didn't match either. It was a clearly defined reverse L shape moving first North to South and then East to West at the bottom of the vertical stroke from my position.
I watched it for perhaps 15 minutes before it suddenly disappeared. I considered what possibilities existed to cause such an effect, and had an opportunity to utilise Occhams razor. There were four possibilities that immediately sprang to mind. The aforementioned plane with collision lights on was quickly discounted as failing to match the perceived effect. The possibility that it was a police helicopter using a searchlight was similarly discounted as although it is a fairly regular occurance in my area it again failed to match the perceived effect. There was no evidence of a physical source for the luminosity, since it disappeared when it moved through a break in the cloud, and it was this that gave me my biggest clue. Although it appeared to be illuminating the cloud from above, this had to be an optical illusion since it would have been more visible through a cloud break, rather than disappearing. The implication of this was that it was something shining onto the base of the clouds from the ground.
having established that this was the most likely source, the analysis became much more straightforward. So, waht was this mystery light? The most likely cause, taking into account the principle of selecting the solution with the least number of dependant assumptions was.....
........well, I think that I will let you, dear readers decide that, and hearty congratulations to the first person with the correct answer, and yes, I confirmed my assessment and was proved correct!
I watched it for perhaps 15 minutes before it suddenly disappeared. I considered what possibilities existed to cause such an effect, and had an opportunity to utilise Occhams razor. There were four possibilities that immediately sprang to mind. The aforementioned plane with collision lights on was quickly discounted as failing to match the perceived effect. The possibility that it was a police helicopter using a searchlight was similarly discounted as although it is a fairly regular occurance in my area it again failed to match the perceived effect. There was no evidence of a physical source for the luminosity, since it disappeared when it moved through a break in the cloud, and it was this that gave me my biggest clue. Although it appeared to be illuminating the cloud from above, this had to be an optical illusion since it would have been more visible through a cloud break, rather than disappearing. The implication of this was that it was something shining onto the base of the clouds from the ground.
having established that this was the most likely source, the analysis became much more straightforward. So, waht was this mystery light? The most likely cause, taking into account the principle of selecting the solution with the least number of dependant assumptions was.....
........well, I think that I will let you, dear readers decide that, and hearty congratulations to the first person with the correct answer, and yes, I confirmed my assessment and was proved correct!
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