Saskatchewan Sun Dogs, Solar Halos

Extreme cold and high winds over the past few days have created wonderful displays of sundogs and solar halos in Saskatchewan skies. (Yes, cold! Below -35C, with wind chills as low as -51C!)

But the sundogs — glowing mini rainbows/suns at the sides of shining rings around the sun. And the halos — some days, one; others, the more rare sight of two huge circles in the sky, with the arc of an upside-down rainbow tipped above. So beautiful!

Sun dogs, solar halos, and solar arcs. Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada, January 4, 2014. © Shelley Banks

This image was taken looking south, across the street from my house. What an amazing sight!

This display was so vast that I couldn't take it in at one glance; I had to scan the sky, looking for more beyond the inner halo, and then, with delight, seeing the outer halo and then, at the top of the sky, the upper arc. (The camera did slightly better with the lens set at 11mm, a much wider angle than the normal human field of view.)

What is? A series of solar halo - with sundogsoptics

Location: Seen across the road from my house, Regina, Saskatchewan
Photo dates: January 4, 2014. 

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Rainbow arc above solar halo

More cold weather sunlight play...

A ring of reflected light and a mystery rainbow arc. These ice halos and other solar displays span to much of the sky for my camera lens to capture, so I'm experimenting with video for a wider range. (The arc shows twice -- partway through, and at the very end.)

Any weird angles aren't meant as art shots. It was too bright looking directly at the sun to see exactly what I was shooting... As for the architectural details that intrude into the video from the right, that's the roof overhanging my front porch.

(The background noise? Traffic on nearby streets here in Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada... Delete, delete, delete.)

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Solar halo and rainbow arc

A mystery in the sky...

High above the sun and the glowing halo that encircles it, a rainbow.

I'm not sure what this is in technical terms, but Atmospheric Optics mentions phenomena such as supralateral arcs, which I think would be about the same distance from the sun and solar halo as this.

Some of my images show this upper rainbow curving down; in some it's straight across; here, it curves slightly up -- a very subtle smile. (All photos: Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada.)

The mystery upper rainbow:  a subtle smile.
Photo © SB

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Update: Les Cowley of Atmostpheric Optics has confirmed this is part of a circumzenithal arc. I'm excited about capturing the picture -- and about having seen it in the sky.  

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Sundogs and solar halos over Wascana

A huge eye loomed over the horizon in Regina, Saskatchewan, yesterday morning.

I tried to capture it from my office, but dirt on polarized windows blurred the bursts of light and rainbows on either side of the sun.

Outside, frigid winds froze the city at minus 37 Centigrade (minus 35 Fahrenheit). I'd just arrived at work. I didn't want to go back out. But I wanted a picture of this ice crystal magic.

The eye in the sky through dark dirty glass. Photo © SB

I know how to dress for winter. Silk, merino, down. Thinsulate. Wind block. Hat, parka, boots, scarf, gloves. Layers and layers and more layers. But cold this extreme leaches through everything. By the time I crossed the road to the park -- a two-minute walk -- my fingertips were numb. By the time I circled back to the office -- a 15 minute walk -- they throbbed with the raw pain of amputation. An oval patch below my uncovered cheekbone stung like sunburn. Frostbite.

Sundogs, solar halos, upper tangent arcs and the rest of these phenomena form when ice crystals in the atmosphere reflect and refract sunlight, and our most stunning ones appear when the weather at ground level is bitterly, brutally cold.

Every time I see them, I see -- and learn -- more.

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