Two fragments of halos

[Hans Stocker]

Knowing Alec Jones reentered the forum I have a question about some parts of halos I saw a few months ago. Date: 10th of September 2017 16:01, so the sun at height 34 degrees.

Two separate parts of a halo appeared at a hand-width distance, so at about 22 degrees, above and just a bit left from the sun. A 22 degrees halo seems obvious for the lower one but it more colorful than usual. Might it be circumscribed halo because of the brighter colors? What puzzles me next is the curvature and position relative to each other. Might the upper one be a UTA or a Parry arc? The colors were rather bright and distinctive. I took three pictures within the time-span of only 1 minute before clouds hided the spectacle.

The pictures here under are enhanced equally by adding saturation 3 times in photo-shop. So no mundane Lorentz transformations involved……

The three pictures are presented in order of time taken. The first was taken with 135 mm, the second with 65 mm and the third with 109 mm.

Any comment is much appreciate.

[Alec Jones]

Hello Hans,

I’m sorry it has taken me so long to get back to you. I tried several times to reply yesterday evening but the system wouldn’t accept my post. In the end I had to ask CAS support for help and they suggested that the problem might be due to me trying to post links (either too many or of the wrong type) in my reply. Consequently I have had to scrap my original reply. However, in short I think it is a fragment of the suncave Parry over the 22/UTA. A circumscribed halo is formed where the upper tangent arc meets the lower tangent arc and does so when the sun is 29 degrees or higher. It also changes shape depending upon solar elevation. In your observation, one would require a much wider angle of view to capture the circumscribed so I cannot comment one way or another.

I hope this helps.

Best,

A

 

[Hans Stocker]

Hi Alec,

Things get weird down the rabbit hole. I had the same problem yesterday with making this topic. I wanted to post it in the morning, tried it as a new topic, tried it as a reply on Heavy, tried it without pictures to start with, but nu success. Eventually I succeeded at the beginning of the evening.

Yes your answer helps. Many thanks for your opinion on this. Very clear. Unfortunately a wider view wasn’t possible and that makes definite conclusions very difficult for the lower one I understand. I am happy with the thought I saw a part of the suncave Parry. Rather rare.

So thanks again.

H

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