What is Antarctic White Light?

In Antarctica, sometimes you will suddenly encounter a strange atmospheric optical phenomenon-white light. Countless rays of white light appeared in the sky and on the earth, front, back, left, right, far and near, and the surrounding area was milky white, which was dazzling. The horizon in the distance disappeared, the mountains disappeared, the deep valleys disappeared, and the companions could only hear their voices but not see their people, and everything was melted into this terrible white.

The Antarctic white light often appears around noon and lasts for several hours. It often brings disasters to people. In 1958 at Ellsworth Base, a helicopter pilot suddenly encountered a white light and did not know which direction to fly. The helicopter lost control, resulting in a crash and death. In 1971, an American plane also crashed due to a sudden encounter with a white light.

The white light appears in Antarctica because the weather in Antarctica is cold and dry, and the clouds contain very little water, so their ability to absorb sunlight is very weak. Sunlight can pass through clouds and reach the ground directly, and the air near the ground is very clean, so the air scatters and absorbs very little sunlight. In addition, the ground is covered with a layer of ice and snow, which can reflect most of the sunlight into the air. Through the reflection back and forth between the clouds and the ground, the brightness of the sky and the ground becomes very uniform. When the brightness is basically the same everywhere, the white light phenomenon occurs.