The mysterious flashes of light NASA can't explain

[nivek]

In the course of just one year, a spacecraft observing Earth spotted hundreds of mysterious ‘flashes’ reflecting off the surface of our planet.

The bizarre phenomenon can be traced all the way back to the 1990s, when astronomer Carl Sagan made note of similar strange ‘glints’ in images from the Galileo spacecraft.

While it was first thought that these strange flashes of light only appeared over oceans, possibly simplifying their origin, scientists have now discovered that they can be seen over land as well.
In a new investigation, researchers found that these bursts likely have a surprisingly small source – tiny, horizontal ice crystals floating high in the sky.

NASA’s Earth Polychromatic Imaging Camera (EPIC) aboard the NOAA’s Deep Space Climate Observatory (DSCOVR) spotted 866 bursts of light over land between the observatory’s launch in 2015 and August 2016.

The flashes seen over the ocean may simply be the reflection of sunlight off a smooth part of an ocean or lake, Alexander Marshak, DSCOVR deputy project scientist, explains.

But, the same couldn’t be said for the flashes seen over land.

‘We found quite a few very bright flashes over land as well,’ said Marshak.

‘When I first saw it I thought maybe there was some water there, or a lake the sun reflects off of.

‘But the glint is pretty big, so it wasn’t that.’

EPIC captures red, green, and blue images several images apart, causing the flashes to appear as tri-coloured specks.

If these strange phenomena were caused by reflected sunlight, the researchers suspected they would be concentrated to distinct locations on Earth, where the angle between the sun and Earth is the same as that between the spacecraft and Earth.

NASA satellite captures mysterious flashes from Earth | Daily Mail Online

 

[Toroid]

I saw this story on several sites and I don't know what to think of it. I don't buy the reflection story. You can see the object illuminate while under the clouds.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=R0atLLQKjRE

 

[nivek]

I don't accept the reflection theory either, it doesn't fit, as you said...Couldn't they coordinate a satellite to zoom in on a location when a flash occurs to see what other sort of activity may be going on at the moment?...

 

[Toroid]

The motive for the installation of the ISS cupola in 2010 could have been to get images & video of such anomalies.
Cupola (ISS module) - Wikipedia

 

[Dundee]

Is there no reference from the corresponding location on land by observers. Surely someone would have seen something that big.

 

[nivek]

I agree there must have been others who saw this...

 

[Sheltie]

Interesting article. I had heard about flashes such as this which are periodically seen over the surface of the moon but not over Earth.

 

[notdej]

I saw this story on several sites and I don't know what to think of it. I don't buy the reflection story. You can see the object illuminate while under the clouds.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=R0atLLQKjRE

nothing more than the sun reflecting off of things imo