This morning I was driving to the post office to drop a package off and noticed a halo around the sun. I’ve seen these before but I never have actually captured any on “film” until today. I’ve taken to carrying my camera with me wherever I go which is really fun because when these types of events happen I’m there like Jimmy Olsen on a Superman sighting.
Here are the three photos I took this morning. I enhanced the first one to better demonstrate the beauty of the rainbow effect that accompanies this phenomenon.
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The name of this fantastic sight varies. They are simply called ‘halos‘. Some people refer to them as Icebows and yet others call it an ice-halo. Their names are all appropriate. This optical effect is caused by ice crystals in very cold cirrus clouds located in the upper troposphere. The light refracting off of these clouds creates the effect. Sometimes the halo is accompanied by Sun Dogs (also know as parhelia). Sun Dogs are bright pillars or splotches of light that appear on either side of the sun. I did not see any this morning–but this was still cool.