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Speckled Light Field in Wing Strobe



I was looking out of the wing window as the plane approached
Montreal on wednesday last. When we cleared the thin cloud,
the night-lights of the city looked strikingly clear.

Then I noticed that as the wing tip strobe flashed, it was
illuminating a field of prominent light speckles which varied
randomly each flash. They numbered perhaps fifty, in a visual field
extending through a circle of diameter perhaps six wing tip chords
centered on the wingtip.

I estimated the chord at the tapered end
of the wing at about 1 meter. The short light tracks seemed to be
about 2 to 6 cm long. Their length seemed constant and appeared to
decay exponentially which I presumed was due to the flash
characterisitic.

The sky was obscured by the cloudbase at perhaps 5000 ft.
The visibility was unlimited.

It was conceivable we were passing through the freezing level
at this point. The speckled field persisted for a minute
or so during the descent or level approach segment ( not sure which).
Walking along a street there after landing, I noticed a cloud
of fruit flies in a 2 meter sphere about three meters overhead.
It was not chilly.

I had not noticed this effect before during reasonably frequent
air trips. Any thoughts?

Administrivia:
American flight AA1634 seat 23A, expected arrival 7:39 p.m April 21,
delayed about 1 hour due to mechanical difficulties before takeoff

brian whatcott <inet@intellisys.net>
Altus OK