The above photo (on the left) is being shared as evidence of "Directed Energy Weapons" starting forest fires. Of course it's just a streak of light caused by the sun (which you can see is just off the top of the image). But it's not really, as some people have said a "lens flare". It's caused by streaks of grease on the lens cover. These form little ridges which refract and reflect the light perpendicular to them and create a streak of light perpendicular to the streaks of grease. I've duplicated it, above on the right. And here's a video explaining how I did that (basically wipe the lens on your iPhone with your finger, especially just after rubbing your nose)
Source: https://youtu.be/it1s7gFRgDE
Here's a close-up of the streaks on the lens cover that made the best streak I got:
In a wider context you can see the streaks are horizontal. This makes the streak/beam vertical
Here's the camera that took those close-ups
The phenomenon is similar to streaks you see sometimes on a dirty car windshield.
The original photo came from the official Twitter site for the Klamath National Forest on May 24, 2018
Source: https://twitter.com/Klamath_NF/status/999703352748355585
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