Pages Tagged “halo”
Blog Posts
- Full Halo
A 22-degree circular halo spotted today, caused by sunlight refracting through ice crystals in the thin cloud layer.
- Halo Over Bike Path
A bright circle in the sky surrounds the silhouette of a stop sign blocking the sun. Below it, a bike path winds into the distance and electrical towers stretch upward.
- Tangents and Chords Across a Sun Halo.
Update: Someone on Flickr blamed this effect on aircraft emissions. No, these have been around long before aircraft. They’re caused by light refracting through ice crystals, which can be near the surface or high in the upper atmosphere. They get even more elaborate in places where it’s colder near the surface and more ice crystals […]
- Fragments of a sun halo and a couple of contrails
Looks like the usual 22-degree circular halo.
- Glass Sundog
A bright sundog next to a glass-sided building. The sun is off to the left out of frame. The sundog had a bit more color and more of the spectrum in it as seen through my polarized sunglasses, so I kind of wish I’d taken a shot through one of the lenses, but at least […]
- Halo and a Dark Cloud
A 22° sun halo.
- Bisected Halo
A clear 22-degree halo around the sun, bright enough that I didn’t have to adjust the image afterward. This is straight from my phone. Even cooler: you can actually see the contrail’s shadow on the layer of cloud that’s producing the halo! The sun is behind the tree, and while the contrail pops out so […]
- Double Rainbow Cloud
Two fragments of a circumhorizon arc seen on my way back from lunch today. I took some shots with my phone, because that’s what I had, then remembered that I had the good camera with me (I usually don’t) and grabbed it from the office. The clouds had shifted, but not far enough to destroy […]
- Summer Halo
A short rainbow-like arc in the sky, backed by wispy clouds and appearing above the silhouette of a palm tree.
- Compass in the Sky
Two views of a 22-degree circular halo around the sun that I saw on a walk this afternoon. Halos are a lot more common than I used to think. Then I started actually looking for them. Even on a warm day like today, there can still be ice crystals higher in the atmosphere of the […]
- Dreariest Circumhorizon Arc Ever
I could barely see any colors in the cloud at all without my polarized sunglasses, and when I took a photo through them, I still had to bump up the saturation. I’ve seen several of these over the years. The brightest one was nine years ago, while the longest was just last year. It’s a […]
- Halo!
Not as exciting as some of the less common halos I’ve seen over the last few weeks, but it’s a very complete 22-degree halo.
- Smiling Sky
The last few weeks have been really good for halos. The first tangent arc I’ve seen, a clear circumscribed halo, the more common sundogs and 22° halos, and now a circumzenith arc, looking like an upside-down rainbow high above the sun, wrapping around the top of the sky. I think this is the second I’ve […]
- Tangent in the Sky
When I first started paying attention to solar ice halos, I read about tangent arcs. But this is the first time I’m sure I’ve seen one. The tangent arcs appear above and below the sun, branching out from the 22° circular halo (which you can see here, very faintly), and change shape depending on how […]
- Double Solar Halo
Two solar ice halos spotted at lunch today. The 22° halo around the sun is really bright and clear, and not that uncommon even in Los Angeles. I’ve seen so many that I still take photos, but I often forget to post them unless there’s something unusual about the view. The circumhorizon arc below it, […]
- Wispy Sundog Fragment
Wispy sundog fragment (colors enhanced). The colors were really easy to see through my polarized sunglasses, but just faded into the glare without them. My phone barely caught it, but the info was there once I stretched the saturation.
- Ball of Rainbow
A sundog looking like a ball of rainbow, and winter trees. The sun is out of frame to the right.
- Sun Halo and Street Lamp
Sun halo, the day before the solar eclipse. Seems like good timing.
- Spectrum at the top of the Sky
The colored wisp of cloud is too high in the sky to be a rainbow or a circumhorizon arc, and the spectrum is too ordered to be an iridescent cloud. I looked up ice halos that might produce this effect near vertical just before sunset. It turns out a circumzenithal arc is a perfect match: […]
- Sun Halos: Always Look Up
Have you ever seen a ring around the sun? Or a pair of bright spots flanking it? Or a rainbow-colored cloud? Just as sunlight reflecting and refracting inside raindrops can create a rainbow, sunlight reflecting off of ice crystals can form fascinating and beautiful halos. It doesn’t even have to be cold at ground level: […]
- Halo and Hawthorn
I think the tree is an Indian Hawthorn. It’s got the same leaves, bark and flowers as the bushes that are all over the place in this area, and Wikipedia says they can be pruned into trees.
- Bright Lines at Sunset
The bright line above the sun is just a contrail, high enough to catch the light without being tinted orange. The one off to the right is a sundog, ice crystals reflecting the sunlight. When I saw it I thought it was too far away to be an ordinary sundog, and might be part of […]
- Eclipse on the Hill
Neighbors gathered at the top of a hill to watch the eclipsed moon rise above the city, through a frustratingly cloudy sky.
- Rainbow Cloud
A brilliant circumhorizon arc fragment seen above Los Angeles. I went to lunch at exactly the right time, and judging by Instagram, a lot of people saw it.
- Palm Tree and Halo
There was enough glare that I couldn’t see anything on the screen to frame the shot, but it worked out just fine.
- Halo achievement unlocked: Spotted a parhelic circle.
I happened to look up in the opposite direction of the sun and saw a smooth, white upturned arc in the clouds.
- Ring around the Target
Ring around the Target. I found the perfect spot to block the sun and view this ice #halo.
- Look up in the sky!
You may never seen a halo around the sun or a sundog next to it, but they’re actually quite common. You just have to look up. (Just don’t stare at the sun!) I usually keep an eye out for sun halos whenever there’s a thin cloud layer, since there usually aren’t ice crystals near the […]
- Sundog, Saddleback, Clouds and Dust
Seen from near LAX through an office window. The Santa Ana winds have cleared away the smog, making the view unusually clear (until the dust takes its place). The sundog near the top of the frame was definitely in the sky and not on the window, and was visible no matter where I moved — […]
- Sundog above juniper trees.
This stood out starkly when viewed through my polarized sunglasses late Friday afternoon, but disappeared completely into the glare without them. I had to put my sunglasses in front of my phone to get this, and even then I enhanced the color saturation before posting. The sun is off to the left.
- Sun Halo Behind a Plant Frame
Photo: I spotted this great circular halo while we were out shopping for our garden. A frame was perfect to block the sun and keep the halo visible.
- Not Exactly Bifrost
Is that a rainbow bridge between two buildings? No, it’s part of a sun halo, formed not by water droplets but by ice crystals reflecting sunlight.
- Elongated Sundog and Contrail
I got off the freeway to catch the train out to the office last Tuesday morning, and saw this incredibly bright sundog off to the east. I couldn’t get a parking space, so I had to drive the rest of the way, but I did get a couple of photos. The sun is off-frame to […]
- Feathery Not-a-Rainbow Cloud
Always carry your camera. You never know when you’re going to spot something rare and fleeting, like a flattened “rainbow” in a cirrus cloud.
- Halo Mosaic
Picture of a full 22-degree halo around the sun in a light cloud layer, stitched together from four photos.
- Coffee Halo
Photo of a halo around the sun, with the sun itself blocked by a coffee mug. Behold…COFFEE!
- ¾ Sun Halo
I spotted a great 22° halo around the sun this morning, almost by accident. There was a reflection in the rear window of the car in front of me that looked like it could be a distorted contrail or it could be a distorted halo. Once I parked, I looked — and there was this […]
- Contrail Shadow, Halo, Haze & Sundog
Photos – It was a good morning for seeing interesting cloud and light formations in the sky.
- Halo Triplet
Photo of three halos around the sun: a 22-degree circular halo, a circumscribed halo, and a sundog.
- Sundog
Friday was a good day for atmospheric optics. I watched a sundog for most of my drive home.
- Daily Halo Pics!
Just discovered there’s an Atmospheric Optics Picture of the Day!
- Glass Bow
The other day I was walking past a construction site in the Irvine Spectrum area, and noticed a rainbow-like ring appearing in the road. I immediately thought of this mystery photo on APOD and its (rather technical) explanation. Naturally, I had to take a picture myself. It basically is a rainbow, except formed by reflections […]
- Halo and Shadow: Cloud Optics Two-Fer
Yesterday morning while driving to work, I looked up from the road and saw two parallel lines in the sky: One white, one dark blue. They were, of course, a contrail and its shadow on a thin cloud layer below. Because it was a thin layer, I started looking (when I had the chance) for […]
- Christmas Shopping
Need to sleep. Found myself typing “Satan Claus” by mistake. Symptom of car culture: I almost feel like I have to justify crossing the street on foot to go to another store instead of moving the car. Sun Halo. All you have to do is look up once in a while. Linens & Things: Nothing […]
- Halo & Sundog
While driving toward the sun a little after 1:00 this afternoon, I noticed a faint reddish, slightly upturned patch in the sky ahead of me, and realized it was probably the bottom edge of a 22° sun halo. I was surprised, since the cloud cover looked too heavy for it, but it was there. At […]
- Rainbow Feather Cloud
On my way back to work after lunch today, I looked out the window and saw this feathery wisp of cloud with a clear rainbow pattern running from red at the the top to violet in the middle, then turning plain white below. As I drove south, the colors moved down the cloud, disappearing entirely […]
- Halos and Rainbows and Clouds, Oh My!
Whenever there’s a light layer of cirrus clouds in the sky, I keep an eye out for halos. I catch the occasional iridescent cloud, or a faint sundog that’s only visible through sunglasses. Today I spotted a 22° halo as I walked back to my car after lunch, around 2:00pm on March 6. It’s not […]
- Halo 360
As I was about to get into the car after lunch, I spotted a full-circle halo around the sun. I’m fairly certain it’s a 22º halo based on the size.