Tuesday, 21 November 2006

Halo phenomena at 09/12/2006 in Mongolia


Richard Löwenherz made a cycle tour across Mongolia and while in Bajantes he witnessed a wonderful halo display. Up to 15 different types of halo (here the German halo key) were simultaneously visible. Unfortunately there are no photos because on the 10th day of the 6-week cycle tour the camera failed. However, I think, the sketch give a no less beautiful impression of the multiplicity of the kinds of halo which he could all see with the naked eye! Apart from this spectacular event, hardly any other halos were seen in Mongolia.
 
by Claudia Hinz
 
at

8 comments:

  1. Michael Ellestad22 November 2006 at 02:34

    Thats sad no photos were taken thats why its very important to carry a cheap compact digital camera with spare batteries and memory cards. I had something like that happen with aurora in 2004 and because of that I ordered a spare battery for my nikon d-100 so when one battery depletes I can insert the spare and charge the other one.

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  2. Marko Riikonen22 November 2006 at 06:14

    This is the first halo observation from Mongolia that I know of.

    I think there must have been also a 20° halo, because you can't have 35° without 20°.

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  3. Claudia Hinz22 November 2006 at 15:10

    As far as I know Richard have a manual reflex camera.

    Maybe the 20° halo were too faint to see this with naked eyes. For find out this we would need photos ...

    Best wishes
    Claudia

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  4. Marko Riikonen22 November 2006 at 15:21

    The 20° halo must have been visible for naked eye if 35° halo was in the sky. It's like we don't get observations of 46° halo with 22° halo too faint to be seen with naked eye.

    Possibly the 18° halo was actually 20° halo. There seem to have been poorly developed 9° column arcs, so 20° halo occurring on the side is not out of question. 20° halo could also have been glued to 18° halo, and the small separation between them was not seen by the observer. Then however we must keep in mind that 18° halo comes from plate population while 20° halo from column population.

    Yes, we would need photos to find out how it really was.

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  5. Jari Luomanen26 November 2006 at 16:51

    An interesting display indeed. I can only wish I could draw as well as Richard can. These are top notch sketches.

    jari

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  6. Marko Riikonen27 November 2006 at 16:23

    I agree. Never mind the little contradictions, I hope Richard's camera will malfunction next time as well.

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  7. Richard29 November 2006 at 17:31

    Here an explanation attempt from the observer: The 35° halo was very faint and visible by its colours. A fragment was going from right to left. My drawing shows the complete visible way of fragments in the time span 9.40-9.50. The sure existence of faint ring fragment without colours nearly 18° began at 9.50. Because the Ci/Cs was structured by alternating brightnesses it was difficult to identify more halo rings near the 22° halo. But I think there is no doupt about the existing of 18° halo. In Tapes "Atmospheric Halos" I found on page 92/93 a halo exposure which is nearly coincident to my observation. The 35° halo is missing but the 18° halo is distinct on photography and simulation. The photography also shows the bright parts of 24° halo between the 22° and 24° parhelia which is a puzzle for me...

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  8. Richard1 December 2006 at 15:21

    I must correct me: the simulation shows the 18° parhelia (lateral arc), not the 18° halo (ring). The 18° halo I identified maybe was a 18° parhelia, too.

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