The science of frozen light
A gallery of sky rings and dogs
Whispers of the ancient skies
Catching a halo in the modern world
YOUR GOAL
Master of The secret rings around the sun and moon
007skaty The Halo Rainbow Order
Red on the inside, red on the inside! Blue shines on the outside of the ring!
007skaty Cirrus clouds between 6,000 and 12,000 meters contain pure ice columns and plates that bend sunlight to create halos.
007skaty Your outstretched hand at arm's length perfectly measures this giant atmospheric ring.
007skaty Bounce and bend light through ice crystals to discover how sun and moon halos form.
Ice prisms: Hexagonal ice crystals in cirrus clouds behave exactly like tiny, floating glass prisms, bending and splitting sunlight into miniature rainbows high in the sky.
A circular band of light around the sun, moon, or the head of a holy person. A historic 1535 painting depicts these luminous atmospheric rings appearing over the city of Stockholm.
What geometric shape must ice crystals have to successfully bend light into a standard circular halo?
At what typical altitude range do the cirrus clouds that host halo-forming ice crystals usually float?
What is the main visual difference between atmospheric phenomena caused by refraction versus those caused by reflection?
What scientific process is primarily responsible for splitting white sunlight into the colors of a halo?