Saturday, May 5, 2018

Ice Crystals at Work in the Upper Atmosphere

There were some ice crystals in the upper atmosphere around here over the last two days, so several sky phenomena caught my attention while I was out and about. This morning, light rays from the sun reflecting off of the platy crystals produced a 22° ice halo (above), and a sun dog (below).
Last night I noticed an odd glow in the sky as the sun was nearly setting. It was a sun pillar, which is also a consequence of sunlight reflecting off of horizontal ice crystals.

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