Old satellite footage stokes Hawaii wildfire conspiracy theories

"Before Wildfire started in Hawaii," says text over an August 13, 2023 post sharing the clip on TikTok, which received more than 97,500 views.

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Screenshot from TikTok taken August 17, 2023

The clip was cross-posted to Instagram, where a user shared it with the caption: "#Hawaii #Lahaina #DEWs #DirectEnergyWeapons #LaserWeapons #HypersonicWeapons #MicrowaveWeapons #DAARPA #Drones #LockheedMartin #WakeUp."

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Screenshot from Instagram taken August 17, 2023

The post references the conspiracy theory that the Hawaii blazes, which scorched the historic seaside town of Lahaina on the island of Maui and killed at least 110 people, were sparked by directed energy weapons. Such systems use concentrated electromagnetic energy fired at the speed of light to combat enemy forces and assets, according to the US Government Accountability Office.

But there is no evidence lasers are to blame for the fires -- and while the video shared online does show Hawaii, it is nearly seven months old.

Reverse image searches show the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan captured and published the footage January 28, 2023 (archived here). The video came from the Subaru-Asahi Star Camera, which live-streams the sky from the Subaru Telescope on Mauna Kea, an inactive volcano on the island of Hawaii.

The observatory said it initially believed the lights were a remote-sensing laser from a NASA satellite launched in 2018, but later said they were "most likely from (Daqi-1), a Chinese atmospheric environment monitoring satellite" launched in 2022 (archived here). The observatory noted such lights are invisible to the naked eye.

The World Meteorological Organization says on its website (archived here) that the satellite conducts "atmospheric aerosol and CO2 monitoring" and is equipped with a measuring instrument that emits "pulsed lasers" (archived here). Various news organizations covered the discovery at the time.

Authorities are still probing the cause of the Hawaii disaster, but the National Weather Service previously told AFP the agency alerted local officials up to a week in advance about dangerous fire weather conditions in Hawaii, issuing formal warnings in the days before the inferno began as a nearby hurricane brought intense winds to the area.

"A mix of dry vegetation, strong winds, dry subsiding air and low relative humidity helped to spread the deadly fires once they were ignited," Director of Public Affairs Susan Buchanan said on August 11.

The Washington Post and other US media have reported that fallen power lines may have triggered the first blazes.

A class-action lawsuit has been filed against Hawaiian Electric, the state's main utility, claiming the company "inexcusably kept their power lines energized during forecasted high fire danger conditions." The company's CEO has said it does not shut off power during fire conditions in part because electricity is needed for water pumps.

AFP has debunked other misinformation about the Hawaii wildfires here.