Explanations
Skeptics discount paranormal sources for the lights, attributing them to mistaken sightings of ordinary nighttime lights, such as distant vehicle lights, ranch lights, or astronomical objects. Critics also note that the designated "View Park," a roadside park on the south side of U.S. Route 90 about 9 miles (14 km) east of Marfa, is located at the site of Marfa Army Airfield, where tens of thousands of personnel were stationed between 1942 and 1947, training American and Allied pilots. This massive field was then used for years as a regional airport, with daily airline service. Between Marfa AAF and its satellite fields — each constantly patrolled by sentries — they consider it unlikely that any actual phenomena would have remained unobserved and unmentioned. The dominant skeptical explanation seems to be that the lights are a sort of mirage caused by sharp temperature gradients between cold and warm layers of air. Marfa is located at an altitude of 4,688 feet (1,429 m) above sea level, and temperature differentials of 50–60 degrees Fahrenheit (28–33 degrees Celsius) between high and low temperature are quite common.
The four-night effort by UT Dallas students (see SPS study below) focused on automobile lights and reached a conclusion that vehicle lights can be seen from the View Park. The Aerial Hyperspectral and Reflection Study (see below) also focused for one night on reflected vehicle lights on Highway 67. These studies make the case that car lights can be seen from the View Park and they do look mysterious to many View Park visitors. It is easily shown that automobile headlights are very visible over great distances, and many Marfa lights observations can be dismissed as auto headlights.
This study is essentially a repeat of the study published in the September, 1965 issue of Popular Mechanics Magazine on Page 116
Read more about this topic: Marfa Lights
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