Green sky at night

JeffK88

I original posted this in the Astronomy & Space forum but after looking into it It could suit here. Has anybody else noticed green skies at night in the northern sky. At first I thought might me the Aurora but no Aurora was over Ireland for past few days.I found a article about green skies are common in the US during severe storms eg. Tornadoes , Hail. What do people think ? I might be completely wrong but trying to get to the bottom of itl.

http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=fact-or-fiction-if-sky-is-green-run-for-cover-tornado-is-coming

Above is the article and i will attach two pics ( Sorry about bad quality hard to make out the green in the sky) I will try get better pics later if its green again tonight. Oh and i looked into artificial light from flood lights and ive seen that before this was definitely green in the sky !! Thanks

JeffK88

Sorry here is the pics

Popoutman

Looks similar to the type of metal halide lighting that is favoured for floodlighting of artificial pitches.

I've seen a similar effect caused by the new pitches on the Clare Campus of UL - but only in certain cloud conditions. The new lights out there are actually very well constructed and put together with no lighting above the horizontal.

I could be wrong about your green lighting, but the picture quality doesn't lend itself to a good answer.

Su Campu

It is most likely due to artificial lighting alright, enhanced by the mist and fog which has made it visual where otherwise you would not have seen it. It's a bit like that orangey glow you get in urban areas when its snowing. The snow scatters the light from the sodium streetlights in all directions, where otherwise it would escape unseen to the sky.

JeffK88

It was green and several people have commented on the green sky if insee it again i will get better pics .

coffee to go

We get the exact same phenomenon behind our estate. We live not far from the Kildare GAA training headquarters outside Newbridge. The spotlights they use are really bright, and we get the same green sky when training is being held.

The reason it's green is because it's not the white lights directly causing the glow, it's the reflected light off the grass pitches bouncing up and hitting low cloud or drizzle. I would guess there must be something similar going on with your area?

V_Moth

coffee to go wrote: »

We get the exact same phenomenon behind our estate. We live not far from the Kildare GAA training headquarters outside Newbridge. The spotlights they use are really bright, and we get the same green sky when training is being held.

The reason it's green is because it's not the white lights directly causing the glow, it's the reflected light off the grass pitches bouncing up and hitting low cloud or drizzle. I would guess there must be something similar going on with your area?

No, just no. Light in the visible part of the spectrum is composed of different colours which have a subtly different wavelength. These are absorbed by objects including gas molecules in different ways. In this case, only the green part of the spectrum remains when the light from pitchside lights hits the atmosphere. All the other fractions are absorbed.

This explains it quite well (http://www.sciencemadesimple.com/sky_blue.html)

nilhg

OP, I see you are in Newbridge, I'm 100% certain that what you are seeing is the lighting from the new(ish) GAA training grounds at Hawkfield, I've seen it often myself.

coffee to go

nilhg wrote: »

OP, I see you are in Newbridge, I'm 100% certain that what you are seeing is the lighting from the new(ish) GAA training grounds at Hawkfield, I've seen it often myself.

D'oh! Only just realised that the OP is here in Newbridge too. It's the same light so.

Vmoth, I defer to your post, as mine was an educated guess (maybe not so educated :pac: )

lolie

Have a look it this green sky.
Live cam from Alaska.

salmon.nict.go.jp/live/aurora_cam/live_aurora_cam_e.html

TheMilkyPirate

lolie wrote: »

Have a look it this green sky.
Live cam from Alaska.

salmon.nict.go.jp/live/aurora_cam/live_aurora_cam_e.html

That's the aurora borealis, Otherwise known as the northern lights

Calibos

coffee to go wrote: »

D'oh! Only just realised that the OP is here in Newbridge too. It's the same light so.

Vmoth, I defer to your post, as mine was an educated guess (maybe not so educated :pac: )

Thats what I told him in his Astronomy forum thread. I even told him to use Google streetview, face in that direction, then zoom to overhead map view and look for the floodlit sports pitch in that direction........

............but would he listen!!??....NO!!

JeffK88

Ohh but i did listen and did do that and looked into that and also looked into other possibilities to confirm what it might be as one does

lolie

baraca wrote: »

That's the aurora borealis, Otherwise known as the northern lights

I'm well aware what it is lad. I put the link up for people to view the real thing and not a floodlit pitch in the mist.

I know a few people who were fooled by the same thing.

coffee to go

Calibos wrote: »

Thats what I told him in his Astronomy forum thread. I even told him to use Google streetview, face in that direction, then zoom to overhead map view and look for the floodlit sports pitch in that direction........

............but would he listen!!??....NO!!

One wee small problem with that system - The GAA training centre wasn't built on the existing set of Google satellite images:

http://g.co/maps/5ssuw

muckish

There's an image on the rte aurora gallery that's claiming to be an aurora as seen in Kildare. http://www.rte.ie/news/2012/0125/aurora_gallery.html Last image 8.
I'm presuming this is the same green light that is being discussed here.
A few things:
1: This is not the aurora!
2: You cannot see the aurora through clouds. Aurorae occur at heights of 60km to 1000km high
3: The lateral extent of an aurora is far greater than the green glow in this image
4: This is an artificial light point source reflecting off the base of the clouds.
5: If anyone sees this light again, jump in the car and drive towards it, find the light and put an end to this.

nilhg

muckish wrote: »

There's an image on the rte aurora gallery that's claiming to be an aurora as seen in Kildare. http://www.rte.ie/news/2012/0125/aurora_gallery.html Last image 8.
I'm presuming this is the same green light that is being discussed here.
A few things:
1: This is not the aurora!
2: You cannot see the aurora through clouds. Aurorae occur at heights of 60km to 1000km high
3: The lateral extent of an aurora is far greater than the green glow in this image
4: This is an artificial light point source reflecting off the base of the clouds.
5: If anyone sees this light again, jump in the car and drive towards it, find the light and put an end to this.

It's definitely Hawkfield

Rikand

same thing around Athlone. On certain nights if you look north, you see the lights from either St. Bridgid's sports centre or else the Driving Range [ not sure which as both are close together ] . look green, but not the northern lights or anything like it

coffee to go

Aurora Kildarealis tonight... :pac:



The source (Hawkfield)...

Blogger50

I've seen this recently too. Once a couple of weeks ago and again tonight. Both nights were kind of damp and misty.

I'm about eight or nine miles from Newbridge so I doubt its Hawkfield. We do have floodlights in our tennis court/ GAA pitch and after reading this thread I put it down to that as it was in that direction.

Tonight was different though, it was in about three or four different locations (different directions) in the sky and not all of it was green. One was more white and one pink......

I highly doubt its the northern lights but not convinced its from floodlights either.

B

muckish

There are no Northern Lights visible anywhere tonight. Even in Sweden!

nilhg

Blogger50 wrote: »

I've seen this recently too. Once a couple of weeks ago and again tonight. Both nights were kind of damp and misty.

I'm about eight or nine miles from Newbridge so I doubt its Hawkfield. We do have floodlights in our tennis court/ GAA pitch and after reading this thread I put it down to that as it was in that direction.

Tonight was different though, it was in about three or four different locations (different directions) in the sky and not all of it was green. One was more white and one pink......

I highly doubt its the northern lights but not convinced its from floodlights either.

B

I had to go to Newbridge tonight, I saw three different versions of this on the way, Hawkfield, Cill Dara Rugby Club and (not 100% certain but confident) Allenwood GAA.

I suppose when you're looking for it you'll see it everywhere.

alphabeat

V_Moth wrote: »

No, just no. Light in the visible part of the spectrum is composed of different colours which have a subtly different wavelength. These are absorbed by objects including gas molecules in different ways. In this case, only the green part of the spectrum remains when the light from pitchside lights hits the atmosphere. All the other fractions are absorbed.

This explains it quite well (http://www.sciencemadesimple.com/sky_blue.html)

you do know that non absorbed light is REFLECTED light yes , Einstein ?

JeffK88

The mystery of the Newbridge Green sky continues :pac:

Calibos

JeffK88 wrote: »

The mystery of the Newbridge Green sky continues :pac:

Eh......no it doesn't????

Oscar Bravo

Time to lock this one i think.

JeffK88

Lock away please or can i do that ?

Blogger50

Oscar Bravo wrote: »

Time to lock this one i think.

Sorry, I dont get why your only contribution to the thread is to suggest its locked?

There is a discussion going on here as far as I can see.

Popoutman

That photo of Hawkfield shows that even with well-designed lighting that there can be significant light pollution.
The lights are well designed as it can be seen that there is no light from the fixtures being directed upwards.
However I would think that the lumens per metre squared is probably too high, given the reflection visible on the clouds above.

So, good light design but too many of them for the purpose. Pity really.

Calibos

JeffK88 doesn't seem to want to accept any explanation that doesn't involve Tornados or St Elmo's fire.

ZX7R

I was in dunlavin tonight and saw a green glow in the direction of newbridge i desided to ride my motor bike home via newbridge to see where the light came from i ended up outside the foot ball grounds beside the new army building in newbridge, hope this helps shead light on things