Rainbow around the Sun!

I took these photos 2 years ago, and I found it super interesting!

I have never seen something like this in the many many years I have been keeping an eye on sky. I have seen this in the night around the moon, but never around the sun before. How rare or common is this sighting anyway?

Have any of you sighted something like this before?

a reply to: IndependentOpinion

Great catch! I've seen this type of thing before as well, it seems to be prevalent more when there are cirrus clouds (small ice crystals) but I'm no meteorologist so that's more of my assumption than an accurate scientific explanation

Also known as a 22 degree halo or a sun halo, the ring is caused by sunlight passing through ice crystals in cirrus clouds within the Earth's atmosphere, the University of Illinois' Weather World Project 2010 explains. (See WW2010's website for diagrams that illustrate how it works.)

The crystals bend direct sunlight, projecting it elsewhere into the sky, and at a certain angle -- you guessed it, 22 degrees -- a halo can be seen around the sun.

link

I have seen this from time to time, its light refracted by ice crystals in thin cloud. It's probably there more often than you think, but sometimes you just don't see it. If you find a building to hide some of the strong light, you might see a fainter version often enough.

a reply to: ATF1886

Great info - thanks for posting. Surprised my guess was actually on point for once

Also cool how it is precisely a 22 degree angle that produces the effect. Numerology... the language of the universe?

I was simply going to write it but ive been under alot of scrutiny lately so i did it the proper way...a reply to: FamCore

a reply to: ATF1886

Great thanks. Well nevertheless, this is something amazing to see.

originally posted by: IndependentOpinion
a reply to: ATF1886

Great thanks. Well nevertheless, this is something amazing to see.

Its so amazing that at a specific degree does this happen truly amazing great find first time i saw it i freaked out but ats has taught me to do the research and you will find the answer!!

Very nice pic. I experienced this for the first time 2 months back (in Belfast). I was stargazing on a cloudless sky night where the moon was full and had a huge ring around it, I found this strange being the first time I saw something like this. The next morning the sun had the same ring but it was coloured (rainbow) and very similar to the one in your picture.

What has baffled me is the fact that the ring was there over the two different bodies and I haven't researched enough to say what they are. Also there were no clouds in the sky on the night and the morning.

I saw one a couple weeks ago. Looked it up and found out it's called a sun halo. Very pretty!

Wow! I've never seen this before! Thanks for sharing!

originally posted by: FamCore
Numerology... the language of the universe?

More a matter of the refractive index of ice and its tendency to form hexagonal crystals. The number is what you get after the physics has done the work. 22 degrees is an average - ice is dispersive, so you get different refraction angles across the visible spectrum. That's why there's a rainbow in the ring, too.

It means rain is on the way or sometimes snow is on the way. I've seen a few of these and usually it rains or snows in the next 48 hours.

Saw probably the best example of one of these I've ever seen in the early 80's. We were somewhere that was very warm for the season, maybe 70, the sky was very clear. An absolutely awful cold front rolled in, very sharp, big temperature drop, lots of strong wind.

There was a roll cloud formation as it came in that was razor straight. Uniform pitch black clouds on one side, blue sky on the other, knife edge difference. As the cloud edge went over the sun, a beautiful very bright sun halo formed below the cloud, and two sun dogs as bright as the sun appeared, one over the sky side, one under the clouds. I don't think I've ever seen one as clear or as striking.

Then it started to hail and freezing rain was falling, so we got out and trained in it. I guess you have to have equally balancing bad things with the beautiful ones.

Working outside, I see at least one of those a month. Usually have a good chance to see one during times of heavy 'contrailing', so I call them chembows.

originally posted by: GodEmperor
Working outside, I see at least one of those a month. Usually have a good chance to see one during times of heavy 'contrailing', so I call them chembows.

The reason you get persistent contrails also gives you unstable high altitude weather conditions, often including ice crystal formations. Since the ice crystals also cause the sun halos, it's not odd that persistent contrails go with sun halos.

I saw that once, when I was an elementary school student. So, that would be a good 35 or so years ago. Beautiful enough for me to remember it from so long ago. Saw it during recess.

a reply to: IndependentOpinion

I saw something like this a couple years ago too, it was after I saw a UFO being shot down by Jets and then it vanished in a flash leaving behind this phenomena instantly afterword.

a reply to: Bedlam

Hence the term chembows, I see several a year, anthropogenically induced.

originally posted by: GodEmperor
a reply to: Bedlam

Hence the term chembows, I see several a year, anthropogenically induced.

You see (maybe) several a year, totally natural.