On January 28, residents of the US state of Hawaii spotted strange green lights in the sky. They appeared in vertical stripes, reminiscent of the Digital Rain from the “Matrix” movies. At first it was assumed that measurements by the US space agency were behind the spectacle NASA. Apparently, she is not responsible for this.
NASA probably wasn’t
“The lights are believed to be from the ICESat-2/43613 high-altitude remote sensing satellite,” said a team from the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan (NAOJ), whose camera recorded the phenomenon, in one Tweet. ICESat-2 is a NASA satellite primarily used to monitor the thickness of the Earth’s sea ice, ice sheets and forests. A short time later, however, the NAOJ corrected its statement. Due to the trajectory of the satellite, it is very unlikely that he is responsible for the light phenomenon.
“According to Dr. Martino, Anthony J., a NASA scientist working on ICESat-2 ATLAS, it is not from their instrument but from others,” reads a note below the relevant one YouTube-Video. “His colleagues, Dr. Alvaro Ivanoff et al., simulated the trajectories of satellites that have a similar instrument and found the ACDL instrument on the Chinese satellite Daqi-1/AEMS to be the most likely candidate. We really appreciate your efforts in identifying the light. We regret our confusion regarding this event and its potential impact on the ICESat 2 team.”
Unlike NASA’s counterpart, China’s Daqi-1 satellite is designed to monitor Earth’s atmospheric environment. In other words, from the orbit of our planet, it measures values such as global carbon content and air pollution. One of the device’s instruments might be responsible for the laser beams over Hawaii.
Possibly Chinese satellite
Unlike a sonar, a lidar (laser imaging, detection and ranging) does not emit sound waves to measure carbon dioxide, but light waves. This same laser might be responsible for what the records from Hawaii show.
“Daqi-1 can monitor particulate matter pollution such as PM2.5, pollutant gases such as nitrogen dioxide, sulfur dioxide and ozone, and carbon dioxide concentration,” explains one press release of China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation (CASC) in March 2021, which developed Daqi-1. “In the future, China will produce a series of Daqi satellites that will be used to monitor air pollution, provide remote sensing data to environmental agencies, and support scientific research on global climate change.”
It has not yet been confirmed whether the lights are from the Chinese satellite’s lidar rather than from NASA. However, there is a lot to be said for it.
Sources: Twitter/@SubaruTel_Eng; YouTube/
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