Light Pillar

Nature's Beautiful Special Effect

Light pillars scrape the night sky over Alaska. It may look as if an alien invasion force is beaming down to overrun our little planet but, in fact, this is a purely natural phenomenon. Light and water is all that is needed to produce this remarkable special effect.
When light comes into contact with the facets of ice crystals in the air it does one thing: bounce. When the source of light is close to or on the ground the light pillar will appear above the floating crystals.