Subparhelia and sub 120° parhelion on ice surface

average stack of 15 frames

In the morning after new year's night, I noticed through a window cirrus clouds, and I went to observe. While I was waiting for the appearance of halos, I noticed weak subparhelia on the ice surface. Out of curiosity, I decided to look for a place where they could be brighter, and I found it (1, 2). It was quite a small area near a coast, almost all sides limited. There I saw not only bright subparhelia, but also clearly visible sub 120° parhelion in pillar form.

maximum stack of 3 frames

It was perfectly visible even when I did not move. The temperature was negative only at night until this morning. In the previous day it was positive (around +4 degrees of Celsius), as during of the observation (0...+1). 

At that time, while I was shooting halos on the ice surface, in the sky appeared parhelion and 22 degree halo (3). Later the upper tangent arc was spotted in cirrus clouds (on the stack also well visible supralateral arc - 4). At the end of the day, I also noticed weak and wide circumzenithal arc (5) from low sun.

Date: 2017-01-01

A fireball as bright as a full moon was observed in Finland 15 April 2007 at 00.13 local time. The fireball was also recorded by several fireball cameras in Finland.

In Vaala, a low-light video camera operating by Jarmo Moilanen got the whole event and also something extra: parhelion (A in image) and fragment of 22° halo (B) are following the fireball!

Image shown here is cropped from a single video frame. The fireball looks like a ball of light. In lower part of the image there is so called peak hold image from the fireball video showing the trace made by fireball during its 10 second existence.

Since fireballs are rare and sporadic events, halos made by fireballs are seldom reported. You can see the video here.

 

by Jarmo Moilanen

 

Original post in Halo reports

Halo made by fireball observed in Finland

A fireball as bright as a full moon was observed in Finland 15 April 2007 at 00.13 local time. The fireball was also recorded by several fireball cameras in Finland.

In Vaala, a low-light video camera operating by Jarmo Moilanen got the whole event and also something extra: parhelion (A in image) and fragment of 22° halo (B) are following the fireball!

Image shown here is cropped from a single video frame. The fireball looks like a ball of light. In lower part of the image there is so called peak hold image from the fireball video showing the trace made by fireball during its 10 second existence.

Since fireballs are rare and sporadic events, halos made by fireballs are seldom reported. You can see the video here.

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

Good display in Finland

This halo complex was seen in Kajaani on 26. February 2006. The photo was taken by Kalevi Härkönen. For more see here.

By Marko Riikonen

Reflected Lowitz arcs in Finland

Over the weekend Siberian high pressure brought cold weather to Finland with diamond dust halos along. The display shown here is the gem of the period. It was photographed by Jari Luomanen on 22. January 2006 at Sahalahti.

It presents two components of reflected Lowitz arcs (arrows). As far as I know, there exists only three earlier observations with two components of these arcs, by Walt Tape and Jarmo Moilanen. Drawings based on photographs of two of the displays can be found here and here (in original slides the arcs are very faint).

Reflected Lowitz arcs were considered already by Hastings in the early 20th century, but it was Swedish meteorologist Göstä Liljequist who gave in depth theoretical treatment in 1956. He named them as "Lateral tangential arcs to the 22° halo". There exists several observations - one by Liljequist himself and others by Tape - that show only the arc that match the curvature of the outer component (lower arrow in the pic). It has turned out difficult to simulate these displays, for one thing because simulations predict also the inner arc.

It possibility that the displays with only the outer arcs are different phenomenon all together. Luomanen photos, however, show genuine refelected Lowitz arcs and so far seem to be the best documentation of the phenomenon. Theoretically reflected Lowitz arcs also extend from parhelion all the way to subparhelion, which can explain observations of "parhelia legs".