In 2010, students from the Michigan Tech chapter of the Society of Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineers (SPIE) used a telescope to examine the light, and were able to see vehicles and stationary objects on a highway, including a specific Adopt a Highway sign. They were reportedly able to recreate the Paulding Light by driving a car through a specific location on US 45. They also recreated other observations related to the light, such as multicolored patterns (police flashers) and variations in intensity (high and low beams). They hypothesized that the stability of an inversion layer allowed the lights to be visible from the stretch of highway away.