Halo Complex 2-18-18

Seems like the rare halos keep coming. While visiting my brother and his family I was outside his house watching this halo complex evolve. In terms of rare halos I got parry, 120d parhelia, Wegener arcs, blue on parhelic circle. While enhancing pics and I saw it in pics afterwards an inverted V shaped arc outside the parhelic circle. Could this be hi-sun Tricker arc?

Marko Riikonen what do you think?

Pseudo-anthelion

On the evening of 9th February I left my apartment to hunt diamond dust halos, but was also supposed make it to Lappland Chamber Orchestra concert. So with the proper clothing for such an high society occasion underneath the overall and several other layers (it was close to -30° C) I half hoped it would be total crap to allow me to slip to the concert to hear live the Shostakovitch chamber symphony op. 110.

It indeed was quite crappy, or at least I thought so, and after taking some lunar and spotlight shots I was already driving towards the city - only to turn around and come back to do one last check. That settled it: there was an all sky display developing and DSCH was no more on agenda.

Here is highlighted only one set of photos of that display. The three images show an anthelion that moves below the parhelic circle as lunar elevation rises from 30.1 to 30.9 degrees (according to USNO calculator). The images from left to right are stacks of 4, 3 and 4 successive frames with 30s exposures and the values in the upper corner indicate lunar elevation.

In my attempt to simulate the effect with Halopoint there is only one population of column oriented crystals considered with orientations of the crystals restricted to 12 degrees rotation about the c-axis (parameters are shown at end of this post - the last one of the three tables). This, together with plate shape and slightly triangular habit indeed reproduced something that looks like the pseudo-anthelion in the photos.

A look at the raypaths revealed that the effect is an intensified apex of the Tricker arc. This explains the movement as Tricker separates from parhelic circle at light source elevations higher than 30 degrees. To show it in its true form, below left is a filtered simulation that has only the Tricker rays responsible for the effect and for comparison next to it a full simulation with all rays. Further below is depicted the beautiful raypath. This type of variation of Tricker arc raypath which enters and exists through basal face is also drawn in Robert Greenler's "Rainbows, Halos and Glories" on page 85 and Tape's "Atmospheric Halos" on page 26.

The set of simulations below compares two scenarios of traditional diffuse arc anthelion with the Tricker arc pseudo-anthelion. Actually, in the middle simulation both effects seem to be present. Parameters for these simulations are given further below. Left to right order for simulations corresponds to top-bottom order for parameters.

So accepting that this pseudo-anthelion is an anomalously brightened Tricker arc top, I am however less certain about the correctness of the suggested mechanism behind. The simulation does not come out that convincing when you look at the other parts of the display. It seems to me there is going on something that I have no idea of (or then I just didn't simulate enough, like has happened in the past).  

One curious thing is the lack of subhelic arc in the display. Only if I used plates that were h/d 0.2 or thinner could I get rid of the subhelic arc. But that made the simulation in other respects even further from the reality. Such h/d values were also too small for the pseudo-anthelion which seemed to thrive in quite delicate balance around 0.3 value. For reference, see an earlier case where simulation with thin plates in restricted column orientation (or poor Parry orientation) produced a good overall match with spotlight display. I guess next winter I must shape up on crystal sampling to see if displays like this really don't have columns in the dish.

The display itself was rather faint. No hope of seeing, for example, that pseudo-anthelion even though I saw from the camera display that it was there (and thinking it is just a normal anthelion). I'll be posting on some later occasion more photos from this night, including spotlight stuff.

The great 24 February 2017 halo display in Pskov region of Russia

In the evening, I looked at meteoblue's meteogram (like I do everyday), and saw on it plenty of high-level clouds, but at the same time together with middle-level clouds. At 09-30 I woke up that to check whether middle clouds would not allow observing halos.

I came out and saw that the sky indeed was pretty dirty and contained not only cirrus but also low and middle clouds. But above the sun were the central part of UTA and diffuse pillar. I could leisurely to prepare my camera before halos became brighter.

After a few minutes, UTA became seen pretty well. Viewing the sky I was very surprised to detect the supralateral arc to the left of the sun. The arc was not bright but it was clearly visible. It was weird to see such good halos in such dense clouds. Clouds from different levels merged with each other. So at first, I did not understand that it was a big display that penetrated through the gaps of the lower clouds.

After 10-15 minutes came a big gap in those clouds and I saw the full Supralateral arc which was noticeably brighter than previously. I already was very glad because the arc in this form I saw only on my screen when I processed stacks. And at the moment I saw it in the sky with my own eyes. However, this was only a prelude of what was to come.

Wegener arc, subhelic arc, and blue spot on parhelic circle

Around 11-00 the sky started to clear and above the supralateral arc and a nice circumzenithal arc appeared. In that moment I noticed to the west a bright fragment of the parhelic circle which was low over trees. Cirrus arrived from this direction. While I changed the direction of my camera's field of view, I noticed also the anthelion. High clouds arrived quickly, and they were very uniform and smooth. The brightness of halos quick started to accrue. I ran in my home in order to show the current display to my father, and during this couple of minutes the brightness of halos increased even more. I ran back to my camera, and in this moment halos became extremely bright! The upper tangent arc was very perfect and sharp. The supralateral arc was brighter than a common primary rainbow! Probably it reached such extreme brightness not only because crystals were perfect, but also because the sun elevation was almost optimal. The parhelic circle was also incredible and looked like jets of light. Wegener arc was visually visible as well. Its oblique wide lines pointed out on far and weak anthelion. Around anthelion from time to time X-shaped arc was visible.

Near sun there are 9° halo together 9° column arcs

All sky view. Near anthelion there is Tricker arc

Anthelion and some of diffuse anthelic arcs

Upper tangent arc with diffuse upper 23° plate arc and sharp 24° column arcs. Thanks to M.Riikonen for the confirmation

Halos lasted in this bright form around 45 minutes. After the brightness of complex a few decreased, but all details continued were visually visible. I remember that I saw well crossing of Supra/Infra-lateral arcs on the parhelic circle. Also from time to time appeared 120° parhelia.

On the left there is 120° parhelion

At 13-10 was the end of this great display, only halos near the sun remained. Parhelia were most bright in this moment and seemed to me that near them were Lowitz arcs. But stacks showed that is not true.

High-Cloud Tricker from Hungary

January 16 brought a whole-day high-cloud display to the greatest part of Hungary. The morning started with a spectacular sunpillar with bright upper-tangent arc, and the phenomenon became more and more complex during the day. Perhaps the most interesting feature of the display was caught by Ernő Berkó. He saw a Tricker-arc in Ludányhalászi, Hungary.


As he explained, he started reading emails from other Hungarian observers about the beautiful sunpillar of the morning, but in his region, there was thick fog with a night temperature of -17 °C. At 12:10 UT the fog disappeared, and he discovered the upper-tangent arc and the then symmetrical (about 60 degree-long) supralateral arc above it. Both were slightly coloured. While he was making preparations to take photos, the clouds thickened and covered the view. Later the conditions turned better again, the right side of the upper tangent arc strengthened, and he could take photos from 13:15 for 25 more minutes with the supra reaching lower and lower. He could see that it got brighter at the place where the parhelic circle crossed the upper tangent arc. It was only later that he realised the infralateral arc was also a bit visible and this caused the brightening. Ernő Berkó was trying to discover other halo forms but until 13:20 there were no other arcs, not even a 22 degree halo. It was only after this that the 22° halo started brightening here and there; the clouds were not uniform at all. A few minutes later he caught sight of the halos at the anthelic point. What he saw was mostly of the time a white oval brightening only, but the Tricker-arc also appeared, and sometimes a faint X-shape was also visible, suggesting Greenler arcs. To the naked eyes. the parhelic circle was invisible at this region of the sky. Later on the phenomenon weakened as the clouds thickened again. Ernő said he felt lucky that some days earlier he had shovelled a path in the snow to the back of his garden (where otherwise his telescope is), as this was the place where he could take images without many disturbing objects in view…and he caught the Tricker here, too.



It was Csaba Kozsa, who managed to take a picture of the infralateral arc. He was also reading messages in the buzzing Hungarian forum of halo observers, so in the early afternoon he rushed to his favourite observation point: Visegrád’s hill, Kis-Villám. This is the closest elevation to his home with a good view to South-Southwest, and the 270m hill made it possible to take a photo of the infra. He says that up till this day he had had very little knowledge about complex halo phenomena, but thanks to the several observations on Monday and the explanations of more experienced observers, he now knows where to look and what to pay more attention to.

More photos from three weeks ago in Rovaniemi

It seems putting the photos of the recent displays to my web page will delay. So, in a meanwhile here are two more photos of the display three weeks back.

When light source is at 0° elevation, some difficulties arises in identifying certain halos. Tricker arc and subanthelic arc merge together, as do helic and subhelic arcs. However, the subanthelic arc is formed by Parry-oriented crystals, while Tricker arc is from singly oriented columns. Because in this display the 46° supralateral arc is rather strong, and there are only weak indications of 46° Parry or Tape arcs, probably singly oriented columns were in command. The even brightness of the Tricker/subanthelic loop is also typical for Tricker arc. Subanthelic arc has strong brightenings on the sides - at least in the simulations - and that is actually what seems to be present in the the display of last weekend.

The reason why halos are seen so strongly in the halogen light is probably the relatively dark background sky as compared to sun or moon situation. Yet all the halogen lamp displays that I have photographed so far have been hampered by city lights. Once the crystal cloud drifts to the dark outskirts of the city, more intense appearances should be expected.

By Marko Riikonen

Anthelic arcs in Finland

On August 28th anthelic arcs appeared in the northern part of Finland. My coffee break was suddenly halted as watching from the window I noticed several arcs. Once outside my eye was first caught by well developed parhelic circle. Then, looking up I noticed a colourful Wegener arc. Colours were red on the bottom and blue on the upper part. In the later stage of the display I noticed faint X at the anthelion indicative of the diffuse/Tricker arcs. I had no camera but my friend borrowed his camera equipped cellphone. Image quality is quite poor, but halos are still recognizable. Also Parry arc and 120 parhelia were present. Other halos were 22halo, parhelia, 22 upper tangent arc, parhelic circle, circumzenith arc, infralateral arc and supralateral arc. The display was noticed over large areas in Finland. More photos is here. Also see the photos by Arto Oksanen and Panu Lahtinen

By Marko Mikkila

Diamond dust from Himos snow guns

Mika Aho was also on the halo move on Saturday 4. November. He headed for the Himos ski centre, where some 30 snow guns were operational. The trip was worthwhile. From skiing flanks spread an ice crystal cloud that, even though a bit unclean in appearance, presented some of the rarest halos.

These rare halos are best shown in the photo on the left where several white arcs are seen crossing the sky. Wegener, helic, subhelic, subanthelic and Tricker arcs are all present. Outside Antarctica subanthelic arc has been observed reliably only twice before, both times in Finland. Now Aho's photos add the third observation.

More of the display is to be found here. Like Oksanen, also Aho got halos in moonlight the following night. These photos are under the same link.

 

by Marko Riikonen

 

Originally in Halo reports

Trickers and diffuse Anthelic Arcs in Germany

Alexander Wuensche from Görlitz (southeast Germany) observed and photographed these wonderful Anthelic arcs.

He writes: "In the morning of February 23, 2006, snow stars fell from the cloudless sky. The temperature was 2 deg below zero and there was a slight breeze from northeast. In the northern and northwestern direction the were remains of a Stratus and Stratocumulus cloud layer. In these clouds, the Anthelion with Trickers and diffuse Anthelic Arcs appeared.

The phenomenon was restricted to the direction opposite of the sun. In the direction of the sun I only spotted two small non-spectacular sun pillars."

By Claudia Hinz

 

Original post in Halo reports