Blue Streak in the Sky?

[Jeremy Jachym]

Yesterday as the sun was setting I saw a phenomena I've never seen before. The sky was clear and on the horizon I could see a fog bank. Nothing unusual about that. What was unusual was the blue streak that extended from the horizon line out into the heavens, like a huge spot light, but rather than light it looked like a shadow... I pointed it out to a couple of people and everyone who saw it had never seen a site like it before. It was there for a pretty long time. I told a friend of mine about it later and when she drove to the spot where I had seen it, she told me it was still there even in the dark.

I've tried looking up the phenomena on the web, but haven't found anything that satisfies my curiosity, so I was hoping someone here might help.

I've experienced my share of strange phenomena, but to see something unusual in the sky is beyond words. Thanks for the head's up.

JJ

[Brian Lowe]

I think what you saw was a bolide meteorite and ionization trail.


Ionization trails, During the entry of a meteoroid or asteroid into the upper atmosphere , an ionization trail is created, where the molecules in the upper atmosphere are ionized by the passage of the meteor. Such ionization trails can last up to 45 minutes at a time. Small, sand grain sized meteoroids are entering the atmosphere constantly, essentially every few seconds in a given region, and thus ionization trails can be found in the upper atmosphere more or less continuously. When radio waves are bounced off these trails, it is called meteor burst communications.

Brian

[Jeremy Jachym]

Well, there you go. Thanks for the explanation Brian.

JJ