Loading ...I have been a television broadcast engineer for a good portion of my life. With the demise of ‘tube sensors’ and implementation of CMOS Solid-state image sensors in TV cameras and now every type of personal non-film digital cameras, I have seen streaks like this often. The clue in these images is that it is associated with a lightning flash, or other very bright spot or reflection.
When a CMOS image sensor is exposed to a ‘hot spot’ it goes into a temporary overload condition. The momentary exposure image is moved off the sensor plate by a digital ‘register shift’ to the edge of the image plate. A ‘hot spot’ of light image will leave a bright streak like this as it is digitally shifted off the edge of the sensor plate. It is an artifact of the image sensor.
Another important clue is that the photographers always deny ‘seeing’ this light beam with their eyes when they take the picture. It is always discovered afterward when they look at the recorded image. It is a sensor artifact… not real.
Thus endeth the epistle of the apocalypse.