Wednesday, 25 June 2014

Rare optical phenomenon in Jyväskylä yesterday

People in Central Finland might have noticed something strange in the sky yesterday morning. A couple of odd looking rings appeared around the sun and in the surrounding sky at about 10am in Jyväskylä.

I had never personally seen this phenomenon before so I had to look it up. It is known as a halo. As this Wikipedia article describes:
They are produced by the ice crystals in the cirrostratus clouds high (5-10km) in the upper troposphere. The particular shape and orientation of the crystals is responsible for the type of halo observed. Light is reflected and refracted by the ice crystals and may split up into colours because of dispersion. The crystals behave like prisms and mirrors, refracting and reflecting sunlight between their faces, sending shafts of light in particular direction.

Halo over Jyväskylä on June 24

Halo crossover with a faint rainbow in the lower left corner

Unfortunately my camera doesn't quite do it justice, but I have to say it was an amazing sight. This video captured north of Jyväskylä shows the full halo.

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