Parry sunvex and suncave arcs

On October 28 in Czech Republic I and Lukas Kosarek observed Parry arcs. I saw sunvex arc too (you see title photo) and Lukas take photos of Suncave arc. We saw a nice supralateral arc also.

Parry and Lowitz arcs in Czech Republic

On October 20 and 21 I and Roman Manak saw an upper suncave Parry arc. On October 21 I also observed Lowitz arcs too. On photo is nice Parry arc by Roman. My Parry arc and my Lowitz arcs.

Circular circumscribed halo

This high sun picture by Dorothé Trompert was taken in Alice Springs, Australia, on 15 Nov 2005 13:17 LT. The solar height was 75°. Although the halo is almost circular, it is probably not the 22° halo itself. Instead, the strong peak in its intensity near the halo angle and its vivid colours indicates that it is a circumscribed halo. This observation supports my conjecture that in many of the historic reports of widely noticed 22° halos the presence of a bright circumscribed halo contributed to its visibility. This happened, among other cases, with the so-called 'Chernobyl-halo' in 1986 and with Emperor Augustus's halo in 44BC.

Lunar display with Lowitz arcs

Martin Jankovic and Lukas Kosarek from Brno (Czech Rep.) observed nice lunar display with bright parhelia at October 9. On photos was found clear upper and lower components of Lowitz arcs. More photos of this display are here.

Unidentified halo display in Romania

Attila Kosa-Kiss from Salonta, Romania observed on 29th September 2006 a very interesting halo display at a sun elevation of 12°. Unfortunately, there were no photos but there is a sketch. The most probable explanation is the existence of suncave [H] and sunvex [G] Parry arcs, as shown by the simulation from Les Cowley. Other possibilities would be an circular Lowitz arc [F], as seen on the simulation with HALOET (random: 0.5, plates: 0.5, columns: 0.5, parry: 0.5, Lowitz: 4.0, number of rays=150000). On the same day was observed several time in Germany and Czech the upper part of Lowitz arcs. But Romania was influenced by another weather front (with another cirrus clouds) like the middle European area. Further comments and ideas are very welcome!

 

by Claudia Hinz

 

Originally in Halo reports

Tricker arc in Prague

Very rare Tricker anthelic arc was observed in Prague by Stepanka Kosova. Stepanka seen bright anthelion with "small X". This image is stacking of three photos. It is part of nice halo display with Parry arc and 120 parhelia at October 12 2006.

Czechoslovakia Lowitz arcs

This photo show nice circular Lowitz arc. Photo was taken by Michal Nagy from Slovakia at September 29 2006. My photo possible all components of Lowitz arcs was taken in Holesov (Czech rep.) at October 12 2006.

Circular Lowitz arc in Germany

At the end of September weather fronts from an ex-hurricane reached Germany. In the leading cirrus, Lowitz arcs were observed over two days. Hartmut Bretschneider in Schneeberg (Saxony) made the first sighting on 28th September. He first saw a parhelion with a Lowitz arc emanating from the parhelion when the sun was at an elevation of 14 deg. Later when the sun was higher there was a very bright Parry arc and an upper Lowitz arc (right photo). On evening of the following day Werner Krell saw a solitary upper Lowitz arc at Wersau (Hessen). His photo was taken at a sun elevation of 11 deg. [2, 3]

 

by Claudia Hinz

Originally in Halo reports

More rare halos in Czechoslovakia

Today was day of halos for all observers. I was seen: Parry arc, Infralateral arc. Martin Jankovic: Parry arc, 120 parhelia. Milan Cerny: Parry arc. Stepanka Kosova: Parry arc, 120 parhelia. Roman Manak: Parry arc and Martin Popek: 120 parhelia. For discussion: Lukas Shrbeny from Ondrejov had maybe Lowitz arc. You see his link.

Lowitz arc in Prague

Upper part of Upper Lowitz arc was observed yesterday (9.10.) in Prague, Czech by Milan Cerny. Milan seen nice parhelia, upper tangent arc and Parry suncave arc. Red arrow show Lowitz arc. Here is second photo

9° column arcs in Prague

Today Ondrej Vlach seen nice Lunar display in Prague, Czech. Halo, upper tangent arc and rare 9 column arcs. Ondrej say: "Left side of 9 halo was very bright and I was took some photos at 22:40 UT. I use Registax for photo stacking."

Lower Parry arc in Antarctica region

Joe MacGregor observed very rare Lower Parry sunvex arc in Antarctica. Joe say: "The photo was taken about January 19, 2006 somewhere within ~100 km of 79S, 117W. It was taken with a point-and-shoot Canon S230." More photos halos are here. Simulation is made with Halosim by Les Cowley and Michael Schroeder. This Sun display with Lower Parry sunvex arc is probably second case of the World.

Low sun Parry in Helsinki

October is probably the worst halo month in Finland. The last chances for good high cloud displays are gone with September and diamond dust is not swarming in until November. So it was nice to see today a low sun Parry starting to develop in the sky upon returning from grocery store. Grabbed pocket camera and tripod from my room and rushed to nearby parking lot.

The two images are stacked from series of 15 and 16 shots. The time span is two minutes in both stacks.

Earlier I had seen low sun Parry's only on two occasions. These were in high arctic Canada during diamond dust conditions. It took 22 years of observing to get one in high clouds.