Green lights over Hawaii are thought by astronomers to be lasers from a Chinese satellite

 By Brian Niemietz

February 11,2023

Green laser beams were detected over Hawaii last month, and according to Japanese astronomers, a Chinese weather satellite is to blame.

On January 28, the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan published a video of a series of lights in the sky that had been captured by a camera mounted atop Mauna Kea, Hawaii's tallest peak. The topographic laser on NASA's ICESAT-2 satellite, which is used to track sea ice and forests, is what caused the light display, according to the organization's researchers.

As Vice pointed out this week, NOAJ later updated its YouTube post to clarify that their satellite wasn't the source of the lasers over Hawaii. The new video instead identified a Chinese Daqi-1/AEMS satellite that was launched last year as "the most likely possibility." The China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation stated in a news release from 2021 that it is used to track carbon dioxide as well as nitrogen dioxide, sulphur dioxide, and ozone.

The apparently unimportant update gained attention online after two airships were shot out of the sky by F-22s in the previous week. According to Pentagon officials, one of the items was a balloon being used by China to spy on the United States. Officials in China asserted that it was a weather balloon.

According to the Biden administration, it was built to intercept communication on the ground as it travelled from Montana to the east coast at 60,000 feet above U.S. airspace.

After an F-22 shot down the balloon on Sunday, U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin called the Chinese Defense Ministry to clear the air, but they declined.

A yet-to-be-identified aircraft was downed by an F-22 on Friday as it was travelling 40,000 feet above Alaska. Its origin and function are ambiguous. The object, according to American officials, might be dangerous for commercial planes.