My dad saw something like that a long long time ago and we later found out it was a helicopter or small plane searching for weed grow sites. (Very common in our neck of the woods in the 90s and staggering waste of taxpayer resources)

Some atmospheric phenomenon that I don’t recall made it appear much closer than it actually was. (He was intrigued enough to talk to a friend who was an atmospheric science professor) In his case the repetition was the chopper flying box patterns to search.