Word Of The Day

Parhelic circle:

This is a white, horizontal circle at the same angular elevation as the Sun. Bright spots may be observed at certain points of the parhelic circle. These spots occur most commonly a little outside the 22° halo (parhelia, often brilliantly coloured). Occasionally, bright spots (paranthelia) are seen at an azimuthal distance of 120° from the Sun and, very rarely, opposite the Sun (anthelion). When the parhelia, paranthelia or the anthelion are particularly bright, they are often called mock suns. [Internaional Cloud Atlas of the World Meteorological Organization]

Noted on Spaceweather.com:

COMPLEX SUN HALO: You’re not supposed to look straight at the sun, but… “I’m so glad I did,” says R. J. Cobain of Conlig, Northern Ireland. “I was dumbfounded yesterday when I happened to look up at the sky.” The sun was surrounded by a lacy network of halos and arcs:

[picture omitted, go follow the link]

“It’s by far the best display of atmospheric optics I have ever seen,” he says. “I was shaking as I took as many photos as I could. There was a complete parhelic circle, a circumscribed halo, a supralateral arc, a 22-degree halo, a pair of sundogs, and possibly a Wegener arc.”

Bookmark the permalink.

About Hue White

Former BBS operator; software engineer; cat lackey.

Comments are closed.