Posted on 03/24/2009 6:06:29 PM PDT by TaraP
On March 20th, Danish photographer Jesper Gronne looked up at the clouds and saw not just one or two but three concentric halos around the sun. Before the rare display could fade, he grabbed his camera (a Canon 5D) and snapped more than 20 pictures. Stacking the images on his computer yielded a pin-up quality record of the event: I never expected to see such a rich variety of ice halos here in lowland Denmark--and it's not even winter anymore!" he marveled.
What could cause such an apparition? Atmospheric optics expert Les Cowley explains: "We can work outwards from the sun to explore the mysteries of this display. The first ring is an exceptionally bright and rare 9-degree halo made by tumbling pyramidal ice crystals in the clouds. The same crystals also produced displays on the other side of the North Sea the night before. The inner halo's bright upper and lower patches could be something very rare indeed, plate arcs from aligned pyramids. But we must be cautious, they could just be spots of thicker cloud!"
"The next bright ring is at first sight the common 22-degree halo but with so many pyramidal crystals about it could also be a combination of other pyramidal halo rings. There are hints too of 18 degree pyramidal halos inside it. At least the two sundogs are familiar sights!"
"Farther from the sun at top is another familiar halo, the ‘smile-in the-sky' circumzenithal arc made from ordinary ice plates. But the one touching it and curving downwards is another mystery. We know it is either a supralateral arc or a 46 degree halo. But if a supralateral, we would expect an upper tangent arc from the same column crystals – there is none. If a 46 degree halo then the inner 22 degree ring should be much brighter! Displays like this one are fascinating and need long studies of many photos to unravel and be sure of their secrets."
That’s a great photo!
Very nice TaraP :)
Thank you.
FOFL!
God is taking a close look at Denmark.
"Spirit in the Sky"
Looks like earthquake weather:^)
Paging Alan Parsons...
I saw something very similar on my way to work last week.
I know it has to do with ice crystals in the atmosphere. I reckon a prism effect.
Wow. Very nice photo... f20, iso 1600, shot at a thousandth of a second!... shots like that give us black body ninja types white lens envy. Well done sir.
Only God could create something so beautiful.....
That’s a double exposure.
When the weather warms up I’m going to try some of the night sky photography. I’ve been studying.
“Something rotten in Denmark.” ;-)
BTW - where did that phrase come from? Hamlet???
Exactly what I thought...
Yah, I’m waiting for the first cloud break myself... looks like snow until next Sunday here. I’d like to get a shot of the ISS going over on bulb, and finally learn to take a decent shot of the moon... and maybe by the fourth, some fireworks.
Practice, practice, practice...
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