Hawaiians have been perplexed by the strange light display that has appeared in their sky in recent weeks. First, there was the mysterious blue spiral from the SpaceX rocket launch and now a wall of green lights appeared over the sky of Hawaii.
Despite its eerie presence that evokes an alien-like feeling, The Debrief reports that the bizarre curtain of green lights is terrestrial in nature even if they come from space.
What Are Those Green Lights?
The brilliant green beam of light appeared and swiftly traveled from left to right in front of the star camera in a short video published on the Subaru Telescope's YouTube Channel.
It became visible on January 28, wherein Hawaii's Subaru Telescope Asahi Star Camera on the Big Island's Maunakea captured the blazing lasers that are believed to be the work from NASA's Ice, Cloud, and land Elevation Satellite 2 (ICESat-2) orbiter which was launched in 2018.
As NASA describes, ICESat-2's mission is to compile an extensive measurement of Earth's surface and map it out in 3D. Its single onboard equipment is the Advanced Topographic Laser Altimeter (ATLAS), which is said to have generated the "digital rain" phenomenon visible from the island state.
The Debrief also noted that it was the Subaru-Asahi camera that captured the strange blue spiral over Hawaii. It was the result of a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket launch although it was not totally unexpected as similar SpaceX spirals were also observed as far back as 2018.
Given that the dual Japanese-branded camera only began operating in 2021, these headlines are indicative that it will continue to grab attention, as well as provide the field of astronomy with wonderful photographs of the Hawaiian night sky.
ICESat-2 Explained
The ICESat-2 measures the height of a changing Earth using one laser pulse at a time or about 10,000 laser pulses a second. According to NASA, its ATLAS instrument detects individual photons so scientists could measure the elevation of ice sheets, sea ice, and forests in unprecedented detail.
The cryosphere or Earth's icy areas is a key area of study for NASA's Earth science research and ICESat-2 helps them investigate it, especially now during a warming climate. ATLAS has a single laser that splits into six beams and is arranged in three pairs to better measure the surface. It is precisely timed to detect photons and return to the receiver telescope.
The fast-shooting laser technology allows ATLAS to measure every 28 inches of the surface along the satellite's path. Scientists say that ICESat-2 advances the laser technology from its predecessor ICESat, which was launched in 2003 and was operational until 2009.
Whereas the first ICESat carried the first laser-ranging system called Geoscience Laser Altimeter System (GLAS) instrument, ICESat-2's ATLAS can perform measurements between each yard line. A single beam of GLAS is said to only measure every 170 meters along the satellite's track.
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