As this video made by "Matrix Decode" shows, lightning will light up everything near it with a flash of what appears to be daylight.
So perhaps it's really the electromagnetism from the sun that lights up the atmosphere.
Kind of like a fluorescent light bulb.
For more on this with a very interesting explanation by a very brilliant guy, check out this post -
https://r3v3s.wordpress.com/2016/08/26/petrified-wood-and-emp-daylight/
The post also features some pictures of the Devils Tower mountain, as well as a picture of petrified redwood.
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