UVO

Because of effects akin to mirages, I think it is possible to have multiple refractive paths in the air that give light sources more than one path to reach an observer. From what I understand (not much) radar can also have such anomalous propagations. In most cases, the light curves vertically through thermal inversions, but I have heard of horizontal curvings resulting in side-by-side images of the sun (different from parhelia). These phenomena are fairly infrequent, and thus not very well known.

At first I was thinking that if it was that cold, any moisture in the air would have fallen and become frost, so ice crystals wouldn't be suspended in the air.

But maybe it's possible that previous aircraft had landed, or taken off, on that same trajectory, (even if it was quite some time earlier), leaving microscopic ice crystals floating around in the atmosphere causing a reflection from the landing lights.

According to this, visible contrails generally form above 26,000 ft. In very cold weather, I don't think this would preclude ice crystals from being present, that were invisible to the naked eye and generated by landings/take offs that may have taken place much earlier.

Just a guess.

I live under the approach pathway for a major airbase which was used for opening the Iraq war, so the idea of paying attention to aircraft approaches is familiar to me. The idea of the lights being reflected from ice crystals is interesting. It brings to mind the idea of gravitational lensing in astronomy, a seemingly crazy idea which works. The hollow I live in is protected from wind, so on clear nights the temperature can drop ten degrees from nearby locations. The "lensing" effect of a body of air at a different temperature from surroundings is another possibility. Another "lensing" possibility is the water dissolved in the air (water is wt 18, air is 29). Since you saw banding apparently from ice crystals, there needed to be water in the air, and the crystallization into ice would change the refractive index of the air with ice from the air with gaseous water - and this process would take place with only a slight change in the air temperature , allowing the mass of air to remain in thermal equilibrium. The additional weight of the ice crystals and the denser air would stratify the air. Snow research shows that pockets of ice forming air can give highly similar shapes to crystals, so microcrystals forming could have a large area of similar reflective or refractive character. But this is beyond me (never got really into crystal structure)

Thank you for sharing this experience!

I just took a look at the runways there. You have 14/32 and 23/5, both single runways. So you would have only one active runway at any given time. Here in Phoenix we have three active runways which can be interesting, visually.

I agree that it was a visual reflection and not another aircraft.

Ever played this game as a kid?

If you regard the shop window as a "normally transparent" cloud layer.

Would this answer it?

Years ago living North of Phoenix we often saw strings of lights that were clearly distant cars on a highway. These strings of lights slowly parading low across the sky would wink off and on individually and in groups. They were so far away that the wavelengths were usually shifted toward the red, although the colors sometimes seemed to cycle, just as one would expect looking through occasional thermals across the desert at night. Most folks knew we were looking at the lensed images of a highway 20 miles away, and well over the horizon, because there was nothing else out there. Atmospheric thermal inversions and density differences between the air on the surface of a heated desert and the cooler air above often refracted images into "mirages" and other effects long recognised by the locals. There were exceptions among us who seemed interested in believing those images were something more complicated.

For what it's worth (no pun intended on 34point5's picture) I'm with Tornado and Accountable: much more likely to be refraction than reflection.

I had been in Chicago's O'Hare Air Port it is very busy airport planes land and take off like birds in sky one after another in row.May be it is just a visual effect not UFO.

Nice to see others from around the world coming to our fair state, even in the dead of winter. Winter is interesting in that you can get some very interesting sightings. The sky's are so clear and bright at night. Got to love it. As far as your UVO, not sure about all of that. I kind of think that if there are others out in the vast porto age's of space and are advance enough to make it here. They surely would not be afraid to come in a set a spell, chew over the fat and let us know what they're doing in town. Just my take on that end of it. Hope you enjoyed your visit.

Hi,

I always enjoy my visits 'home' (truly, living internationally and traveling extensively, one sometimes loses the feeling of where 'home' actually is). Of course, it is easier to enjoy in the warmer months.

Your comments about the night sky hit home ... one of the things I miss most is just simple 'star gazing'. I live in a very rural area here, so any clear night is a spectacle ... truly wondrous. In China, I live in a city-environment, so there are never any nights without background light, so the sky is never a vivid display.

There is more I miss, but that is for another discussion.

Kind regards ...

Just a few thoughts when reading the posts,

(1) there are often a couple of flights coming in in the 5:30 time-frame.

(2) I ventured outside (brave soul in sub-zero weather) ,and

(3) the point that it could a mirage.

Just speculation, but could the hot air from a previous flight, cause the mirage effect, could the warmer air it was possible flying through from a previous plane landing, bend the light?

Regards JD.

Hi to all,

Thanks for all your comments ... and I hope to see more ideas, or better yet, other examples or images.

I am pretty well convinced it was somehow a reflection or refraction of the one that created the false 'second'. Their pairing was close, and, although distant, they seemed to be tracking together, so I am pretty sure the false was caused by the 'original'. It was just strange to me, because I had never seen this 'double image' before, and not until the second one 'faded out' did I even realize there were indeed not two objects. Again, with apparent equal brightness, they appeared to be nearly side by side. Also, even if there were two aircraft, there are no other regional commercial airports in the area where the second disappeared, so there is no easy explanation as to where it would go.

With little knowledge of atmospheric conditions, or any reflective or refractive properties of ice or vapor or such, what seems logical is something caused a refraction of the landing lights, creating a false second image. Then, as the aircraft descended through that layer, or possibly flew past some specific layer, the false second image ceased to exist ... again, just my amateur thoughts.

Because the false image appeared below the actual, this is the only way I see it possible.

Kind regards ...