A series of videos recorded over Kona, Hawaii, on April 27 show a distinct green glow forming across the sky shortly after sunset. The footage was captured by local resident Jake Asuncion while filming the horizon near Keahole Point. At the time of recording, nothing unusual stood out to the naked eye. The anomaly only became visible later when the footage was reviewed, revealing faint but structured green light spread across the upper sky.
The following evening, Asuncion returned to the same location and recorded the sky again under nearly identical conditions. The same green formations appeared in the second recording, this time more pronounced and easier to distinguish. Both videos were captured within a narrow window between 7:15 PM and 7:18 PM, facing northwest toward Maui. The repetition across consecutive nights, at nearly the same time and viewing angle, reduces the likelihood of a one-off artifact or random interference.
The color immediately draws comparisons to aurora activity. Green emissions at high altitude are commonly associated with oxygen atoms releasing energy in the upper atmosphere. However, geomagnetic data from those dates does not support that explanation. The KP index remained between 3 and 4, levels that are not sufficient to push auroral activity to Hawaii’s latitude. There were no widespread reports of aurora sightings at similarly low latitudes during that period.
Observatory input has introduced another possibility. The phenomenon has been compared to what is known as a Strong Thermal Emissions Velocity Enhancement, or STEVE. This type of event appears as a narrow, fast-moving ribbon of charged particles in the upper atmosphere and can produce visible light. It has been recorded at lower latitudes than traditional aurora and does not always require extreme geomagnetic conditions. That places it closer to the observed location than standard auroral explanations.
Even so, the structure seen in the Kona footage does not fully match typical STEVE observations. Documented cases usually show a defined arc or ribbon stretching across the sky, often narrow and linear. The Hawaii recordings instead show a broader, uneven spread of green light, forming patches and bands rather than a single clean structure. The difference in shape raises questions about whether the same mechanism could produce this variation, or whether a different process is involved.
Airglow remains another candidate. This is a constant but extremely faint emission from the upper atmosphere, produced when atoms and molecules release energy absorbed from solar radiation. Oxygen emissions within this layer can generate a green color. Under certain conditions, gravity waves moving through the atmosphere can distort the airglow layer, creating banded or rippled structures that appear organized when captured on camera. Similar patterns have been recorded in other parts of the world, including events over North America and South America.
However, airglow introduces its own limitations. It is typically too faint to be seen without long-exposure photography or highly sensitive imaging equipment. In the Kona recordings, the glow was not visible to the person filming and only appeared during playback, which aligns with how airglow is usually detected. At the same time, the clarity and structure captured in the footage suggest a level of definition that is not always present in standard airglow observations.
There are additional factors that complicate the picture. The timing of the glow, appearing just after sunset, places it within a transitional period where the upper atmosphere is still reacting to solar radiation while the ground level has entered darkness. This window can enhance certain optical effects and increase contrast for faint emissions. Cloud layers present in the footage may also play a role, acting as a surface that reflects or scatters light, making otherwise invisible features more noticeable to a camera sensor.
The consistent direction of observation toward Maui also raises the possibility of a localized atmospheric condition or alignment. If the effect were tied to a broader global phenomenon, similar reports might be expected from other locations at similar latitudes and times. No widespread pattern of matching observations has been confirmed, suggesting that whatever occurred may have been restricted to a specific region of the sky or a narrow set of conditions.
At present, no single explanation accounts for all observed characteristics. Aurora is ruled out by geomagnetic conditions. STEVE does not fully match the structure. Airglow aligns with the visibility behavior but leaves questions around intensity and definition. Each explanation fits part of the observation but not the full set of details captured across both nights.
What remains is a recorded atmospheric event that appeared under repeatable conditions, produced structured green light, and was only visible through camera analysis. The absence of a confirmed source, combined with the consistency of the recordings, places it outside routine classification. The footage stands as a documented anomaly, captured clearly enough to analyze, but not yet explained in full.
Source:
KHON2 News – “Mysterious green lights in Kona sky leave astronomers searching for answers”
