Wednesday 18 October 2006

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.

1 comment:

  1. As you know, plate crystals can also make thin looking 22deg halos that resemble the Trompert photo. I think you and I saw a few at Pole.

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