Rare Seen Crown Flash Phenomenon Captured In Indiana, USA

Crown flash is a rarely observed weather phenomenon involving "The brightening of a thunderhead crown followed by the appearance of aurora-like streamers emanating into the clear atmosphere". The current hypothesis for why the phenomenon occurs is that sunlight is reflecting off or refracting through tiny ice crystals above the crown of a cumulonimbus cloud. These ice crystals are aligned by the strong electro-magnetic effects around the cloud, so the effect may appear as a tall streamer, pillar of light, or resemble a massive flash of a searchlight / flashlight beam through the clouds.