Display of 11th June 2017 in Pskov Oblast

Each frame of animation covers ten minutes

There were not rare halos during the display, exept for a weak upper 23° plate arc and a 9° halo. However, the display contained classic halo forms that were quite bright and long lived. I want to show you how these halos change their distance from the sun and curvature in nature. The thing that I remember most is the bright upper tangent arc, that was seen against a very thin ice cloud layer (1).

Display of 3rd August 2017 in Pskov oblast, Russia

Every frame of animation is stack which covers 2,5 min. Colored version is here

At the begining of the display, beautiful cirrus covered the sky, but I did not notice any halos at the time. When I came out a little later, I was surprised to see a bright parhelion and a middle Lowitz arc which crosses it! Cumulus limited the display, so I could observe halos only in gaps between these clouds. There was one short episode when I saw bright upper tangent and suncave Parry arcs. The following rare halos were found in the stacks:

 -well defined upper and middle Lowitz arcs (1) and possible lower Lowitz arc (2)
-part of helic arc (3)
-supralateral Tape arc (4)

Halo Phenomena in Olaus Magnus’s Historia de Gentibus Septentrionalibus (Part 2)

Halo phenomena in Historia de Gentibus Septentrionalibus, Bk. 1, Ch, 14. Image from www.avrosys.nu

The Swedish Olaus Magnus’s 16^th century Historia de Gentibus Septentrionalibus (History of the Nordic Peoples) has several chapters and woodcuts dedicated to halos. The first part of our series introduced this medieval best-selling work, and concentrated on parhelia and paraselenae as described by Olaus. This time the halos of Book 1, Chapter 14 are to be introduced, which is the very first section of his work where he deals with halo phenomena. 

We don’t  know whether Olaus saw any halos in his life, though in Chapter 17, he notes that there were three suns and moons in the sky at the time of his birth. Besides classical natural historical authorities like Pliny the Elder, his information comes most probably from accounts collected during his journeys, which he later recorded according to his own understanding and imagination. He introduces halos as seasonal phenomena, which are connected to early spring and hardly last longer than two and a half hours. He does not even start the list of halo forms with the most frequent ones: the first halos that he describes are the parhelic circle and three patches on it which could be interpreted as the 120° parhelia and the anthelion.

“Up in the north when deep snow covers the earth round about the vernal equinox, circles sometimes appear with the following formation and position. The most spacious circle, spread over the horizon is entirely white, as also are three small circles, each hanging separately from its circumference; towards the east, however, these are distinguished by their yellow colour, as if they are trying to resemble the sun (…)”

Olaus then continues his presentation with the more frequent forms. The 22° halo, the parhelia and the upper tangent arc are easily recognizable, and so is the circumzenith arc. But what comes afterwards (a blackish rainbow and a dusky but colourful one) is more difficult to interpret. We could deduce from their position in the woodcut that he may be talking about supra- and infralateral arcs, but since the depiction and the description are not obvious and they contradict to what such arcs look like in reality, we should not draw further conclusions from them. Olaus’s description is typical of similar accounts: he presents events which took place over a longer stretch of time, disregarding the changes in halo forms as time passes, what is more, he probably never witnessed such halos in the sky.

“(…) and even the body of the sun can be surrounded by a corona or halo of rainbow hues, and has reddish likenesses of itself attached on either side. From these likenesses, or if you wish, from these two suns,  two semicircles, like bows, rise to intersect each other; eventually, after expanding as halos do, they vanish. Around the navel or centre of the most spacious of these circles can be seen an inverted rainbow, which gleams in a cloud of fine vapour. Next there appears another blackish rainbow, opposite to the first in colour and position. Afterwards this bow, dusky but ever varying in colour, as is customary with the celestial arc or rainbow, extends towards the south, crossing through the most spacious of the circles.” 

Vädersolstavlan by Jacob Heinrich Elbfas. Image from Wikipedia

The woodcut illustrating his chapter might look familiar to people interested in historical displays. It bears resemblance to Vädersolstavlan, an oil-on-panel painting by another Swedish man, Jacob Heinrich Elbfas. The painting is the 17^th century copy of the now lost original ordered by the Swedish reformer Olaus Petri, and created by Urban Målare. It shows the halos that appeared over Stockholm on 20 April 1535, 20 years before Olaus Magnus’s book was published. The country at this time was turning to the Lutheran faith, and religious reformation fuelled serious conflicts and controversies between the ruthless reformer king Gustav Vasa, and more moderate Protestants like Olaus Petri. Both parties saw a celestial sign in the appearance of this halo phenomenon, and we can easily deduce that the Catholic Church was also prone to interpreting the halo as a divine premonition. Olaus Magnus himself was the last Catholic archbishop of Uppsala, who had to live in exile for the rest of his life after Sweden had turned to the new religion. Although he does not mention the ominous 1535 Stockholm halo and its contemporary reception, but the striking similarity between the woodcut and Vädersolstavlan might indicate a conscious choice for deciding to start his description of halos in Historia de Gentibus Septentrionalibus with this very emblematic appearance.

Either influenced by his own fate, or due to contemporary superstitions, Olaus attributes bad omens to such halos. Much of his chapter elaborates on what misery they may bring. As he claims, they “always cause, either by their own nature or for some other, hidden reason, the worst consequences in the time immediately following them: for example, ominous thunderings and thunderbolts which throw houses and animals to the ground; capturing and killing of nobles and common folk, and pillaging of the people in that region, not to speak of enemy fleets, pirate raids, and acts of arson; and when the circles disappear at the end of spring, grains of suphur commonly rain down in a stinking mist.”

By Ágnes Kiricsi


English translation by Peter Fisher and Humphrey Higgens from: Olaus Magnus, A Description of the Northern Peoples, 1555, Vol. 1. Ed.: Peter Foote, Hakluyt Society, 1996.

Halo Phenomena in Olaus Magnus’s Historia de Gentibus Septentrionalibus (Part 1)

Parhelia in Historia de Gentibus Septentrionalibus, Bk. 1, Ch, 17.

This is the first post of a three-part series focusing on the rich material that can be found in Historia de Gentibus Septentrionalibus (History of the Nordic Peoples), a popular and influential work of the 16^th century. The work was written by Olaus Magnus and was printed in Rome in 1555. Soon after its publication, it was translated into several languages and thus became a “bestseller” of the age.

The author, Olaus Magnus, was a Swedish theologian, cartographer and writer, and the last Catholic archbishop of Uppsala. He maintained good relationship with King Gustav I of Sweden, and partly due to this, he was sent on various diplomatic and ecclesiastical missions around Scandinavia and other parts of Europe. During these travels he recorded his observations and what he had heard from locals, which later gave the basis of his magnum opus. When his country adopted the Lutheran faith, Olaus decided to remain loyal to his Catholic religion, and stayed abroad for the rest of his life. He was issued the title Archbishop during this turbulent period of his life, but the title was only a nominal one, as Olaus had been banned from Lutheran Sweden.

Historia de Gentibus Septentrionalibus is Olaus’s major work, which consists of 22 books divided into chapters, and is illustrated with 481 woodcuts. In his first book, he deals extensively with halos and dedicates 5 chapters to them. Of these, chapters 17 and 18 deal with parhelia and paraselenae. Olaus seems to have personal interest in these phenomena: when he lists occasions of three suns or moons visible in the sky, he mentions his own birthday at the beginning of October in 1490.

Olaus starts his description of parhelia by saying that in the North, around sunset and sunrise, they frequently appear at any location. They are white or rainbow-coloured, there could be two or even more of them, and are “never above or below the true sun, but at an angle to it” (All English translations by: Peter Fisher and Humphrey Higgens). As a 16^th century Renaissance scholar, he pays much attention to authenticating his writing, and supports his description by referring to natural historical works of Seneca (Naturales quaestiones), Pliny (Naturalis Historia) and even to the popular 12th century encyclopaedia Speculum Maius, written by the Dominican friar Vincentius Bellovacensis. Thus, in his explanation about the formation of parhelia he relies on earlier sources and theories, most of which would now raise a smile. Although the description is very far from the truth, we must acknowledge that some properties of parhelia are rightly observed. Already in the 16^th century it was realised, for example, that their formation is connected to clouds, more precisely to clouds that have specific thickness and uniform nature. 

Olaus Magnus’s description goes as follows: "(…) a parhelion is a rounded shining cloud, similar to the sun; for at the time of an eclipse we set out basins, which we fill with oil or tar, in order to observe how the moon stations itself before the sun, because a viscous liquid is less easily disturbed and retains the images which it receives. Therefore as the images of the sun and moon are viewed like this on earth, so also it happens in the sky that when the air is condensed and pellucid, it takes upon itself the figure of the sun; other clouds catch this up, too, but pass it on if they are moving or if they are thin or contain impurities. For the moving ones scatter the image, the sparse ones let it escape, while the foul and filthy ones receive no impression of it, just as with us things that are stained give no reflection."

A further interesting detail of the text is the idea that if a second parhelion appears in the sky, it is the mirror image or reflection of the first one; “clouds that present this effect are said to be dense, light, brilliant, flat and composed of compact matter.” He also states that parhelia cannot be seen on clouds very far from the sun because the beams of sunlight cannot be reflected from afar. Paraselenae (Chapter 18) depend on the Sun’s brightness as Olaus says, since the Moon “has no power at all to initiate action on inferior bodies, except for reciprocating and receiving light from the sun”.

Paraselenae in Historia de Gentibus Septentrionalibus, Bk 1. Ch. 18.

At the beginning of  Book 1, chapter 17, Olaus notes that the reason why he finds it important to talk about the phenomena is that locals believe they signify upcoming events. For farmers parhelia indicate rain coming. If the parhelia are visible in the South and they last long, farmers in the hills can sow seed safely. If, however, two parhelia are “contending” with one another on the sides of the real sun and then vanish, sailors must beware of severe storms. In wintertime, when there are three moons in the sky, they foretell snow, frost and cold.

By: Ágnes Kiricsi

Sources:

Olaus Magnus, A Description of the Northern Peoples, 1555, Vol. 1. Ed.: Peter Foote, Hakluyt Society, 1996.
Olaus Magnus, Historia de gentibus deptentrionalibus. http://runeberg.org/olmagnus 
Images: Lars Henriksson http://www.avrosys.nu/

Weak odd radius display on 09 March 2017

Yesterday in St Petersburg was an odd radius display with a predominance of plate forms.

The morning was cloudy. Around 11-30 sky started to clear. After half an hour the whole sky was covered high clouds. But I did not see any halos. It seemed it was usual bad clouds, which not produce halos. Nevertheless, in some moments I saw very weak and wide 22° halo with something resembles upper 23° plate arc. Also was an episode when I saw compact CZA, which apeared without parhelia. My suspicions have only become stronger, about that I faced with subvisual odd radius display.

It was brilliantly confirmed when I returned to home and processed stacks. I was able to identify such pyramidal forms as upper 9° plate arc (possible), upper 23° plate arc, lower 24° plate arc. Also were captured 9, 18, 20, 22, 24, 35 (very diffuse, link) and 46 halos. Odd radius halos lasted 50 minutes, until 13-30. Then until the end of display (until 15-30) were captured only weak common halos, such as upper tangent arc, parhelia and 22° halo.

It was fourth display since 15 February, which includes pyramidal halos.

Germania in Dove Bay

The etching shown above is based on the drawing of Austrian mountaineer, cartographer and landscape artist, Julius von Payer, and was published in the 30 December 1871 issue of Illustrirte Zeitung. The halo phenomenon was sketched in Dove Bay in the region previously known as King William’s Land, the northernmost area the Second German North Polar Expedition reached. 

In the mid-19^th century, German ambitions to explore to North Polar region resulted in two expeditions. The first, in 1868, got as far as latitude 81°5' near Spitsbergen, but could not reach its planned destination and yielded no significant scientific achievement. The second one was a more extensive journey and aimed at getting to know the central Arctic regions with a planned wintering in the hitherto unexplored northeastern Greenland. 

It was on 15 June 1869, when the two schooners, Germania and its supply vessel Hansa left Bremerhaven. The captain of Germania was Carl Koldewey, who had already gathered experience in polar journeys during the previous German expedition.  After about a month, the two ships met pack ice and got separated due to misreading the flag signs. Hansa was not fortunate: it was crushed by the ice and sank at latitude 70°32', a few kms from the Greenland coast. Its crew of 13 spent the winter in a coal dust briquette shelter and was finally saved. 

Germania, with its crew of 15 men, reached Sabine Island, where the wintering camp was established. In the autumn of 1869 and spring 1870, they made sledge explorations, reaching  the northernmost latitude of 76°30'N. The investigations were led by Payer and the most significant achievement was the discovery of Kaiser Franz Joseph Fjord, named after the Austro-Hungarian emperor, who had contributed to the expedition with significant donations. The return of Germania was adventurous. The engine broke, but finally she defeated pack ice, and managed to return to Bremerhaven on 11 September 1870, mostly by using sail.

The Illustrirte Zeitung article does not comment much on the peculiarities of the display witnessed by the explorers. It explains that parhelia are formed by the reflection of sunlight on ice crystals and then explains that sometimes a double ring and colourful arches may form, and even a horizontal line starting from the Sun (i.e.: the parhelic circle). The article then continues with praising the magnificent colours of the display. 

By Ágnes Kiricsi