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Often these consist of a brightening of a small patch of the Moon's surface. Astronauts on Apollo 11 reported an apparent brightening of part of the Aristarchus crater while in orbit around the Moon, for example (see the transcript towards the end of this PDF paper).
Because of the largely anecdotal nature of the evidence for these so-called "transient lunar phenomena" (TLPs), many scientists are sceptical that they even occur at all.
If they are real, no one is sure what is behind them. One idea that has been bandied about is that they are caused by gas seeping out from beneath the lunar surface. The gas might stir up dust that reflects sunlight, leading to a temporary bright patch.
Recently Arlin Crotts of Columbia University in New York, NY, US, has posted some research papers on his website examining the evidence for TLPs and exploring possible methods to get a better handle on them.
He suggests sending gas detecting experiments to the Moon, as well as making ground-based telescopic observations, which are already underway.
He points out that rocket launches as part of NASA's return to the Moon will introduce a lot of new gas into the lunar environment, which could mask any signal from outgassing events. For that reason, gas experiments should be done as soon as possible, he says.
It's hard to know what these events really are, but if they're the result of gas seeping from the interior, we might learn some interesting things about the Moon by studying them. Like most people, I normally think of the Moon as a dead, unchanging place, but if it's outgassing from time to time, that view may not be so accurate.
So, here on earth, ufo sightings are attributed to 'swamp gas' and on the moon, surface anomalies (which is necessarily vague on its own) are attributed to 'out-gassing' --- fascinating how 'gas-centric' main stream theories about unexplained phenomenon can be -- perhaps there is some trouble with 'digesting' the information? ;-)