Odd Radius Display Including 13° Halo, Vilnius, Lithuania 18th March 2023

The display occurred on 18 of March and I observed it from Vilnius, Lithuania.

For the whole day, cirrostratus clouds covered the entire sky. The clouds were moving eastward and also sublimating.

I started observing at 10:25 EET. At that time there were already odd radius halos present: with the naked eye, you could definitely notice both the 9° and 18° halos.

At 11:45, only the 9° halo was present, and at 12:00 the odd radius halos disappeared. After that, and until around 17:00, there were a faint 22° halo and tangent arc visible.

I photographed the halos in raw format with a DSLR camera. After enhancing the images, a 35° halo became visible, but I was surprised the most to see a ring between 9° and 18° halos, which appeared to be a 13° halo. After sending the images to The Halo Vault, I got a confirmation about this from Nicolas Lefaudeux and the Halo Vault team.

Here are some pictures from the display, last two of them in the sequence were processed by Nicolas Lefaudeux:

(All images copyright Donatas Gražulis)

(Image processed by Nicolas Lefaudeux)

(Image processed by Nicolas Lefaudeux)

A similar feature appears in an older photograph that I took on 25 of June 2019. This is the only photo from that day that this appears in; it was taken with a phone:

- Donatas Gražulis

Unusual Elliptical Halos May 8th 2022 in Japan

On May 8, strange elliptical halos were captured by Pipibun in Kunimi, Fukushima prefecture, Japan.

At 14:30 that day, there were cirrus and cirrostratus clouds in the sky, and some frequent halo forms appeared. After taking pictures for a while, the observer moved about 20 km to the north. 

At about 16:10, looking at the sky again, altocumulus clouds over the sun and the double elliptical halos appeared above it. The display lasted for 20 minutes. With the sun 23-26° high, major axis of outer ring was about 10° and minor one was 5°. 

The shapes of the elliptical halos are varied and are thought to be affected by apex angle of the flat pyramidal crystals (or possibly dendritic snow-type crystals.) Additionally, they are known to become sometimes multiple and inner rings are basically similar ellipsoid. Therefore, were there at least two different gradient responsible crystal groups in that sky?

Double (possibly triple) CZA in Zhangye, China

Finally, double/triple CZA, a.k.a the Jensen arcs ( https://thehalovault.blogspot.com/2020/04/new-halo-triple-cza-jensen-arcs-in.html ), made a debut in China. On Sep 27, LING Xiaoyun caught them with her iPhone in Zhangye, Gansu province.

Captured at 09:20:14 UT, when the secondary CZA below the main one was most prominent. Sun elevation 20.0°.

Captured at 09:21:16 UT. The secondary CZA had somewhat faded. Sun elevation 19.8°.

The secondary CZA is also visible through the ultra wide lens.

Catpured at 09:19:33 UT. Sun elevation 20.2°.

She even managed to grab a super close-up shot placing her iPhone behind a pair of 10x50 binoculars.

Captured at 09:20:44 UT. Sun elevation 19.9°.

When enhanced, a third CZA pops up above the main CZA in some of the close up shots. There's also the slightest hint of a fourth CZA below the secondary CZA.

The 09:20:14 UT shot processed. USM above, USM + BGR below.

It should be noted though modern smartphone data are prone to artifacts introduced by HDR and other algorithms, so processed results should be taken with a grain of salt.

Assuming the third CZA above the main one is real, it can be explained by some new models proposed after Jensen arcs' discovery.

Diffraction model:

Nicolas Lefaudeux suggests that the Jensen arcs would be caused by diffraction through prism faces of thin plates. For this to happen, the crystals need to be both thin and have homogeneous thickness. It is the same physics as diffraction through a slit and diffraction corona around the sun.

Because of the combined effect of the dependency of the diffraction with wavelength (longer wavelength diffracts farther) and color spread of CZA, it creates clear arcs below the CZA.

Above CZA, depending on the crystal size, it can be quite a white glow or very washed out arcs. About arc distance below CZA, it is directly linked to crystal thickness.

Below is a simulation made by Nicolas with ZEMAX software (applying some diffraction properties to the prism faces of the crystals).

Thick plates with flat pyramidal tops model:

JI Yun proposes that thick plates with flat pyramidal tops could create extra CZAs above and below the main one. Below is his simulation with HaloPoint. An apex angle of 177.2° is adopted for the pyramidal top.

As far as we know there're also other new models in the works. Now that we have four sightings of Jensen arcs within two years, it probably won't take long for us to have enough cases to verify which theory wins out.

Jia Hao

Spring halo outbreak from the Czech Republic

 

The spring of 2022 in the Czech Republic was characteristic of multitude of halo complexes, some dominated by less frequent halo forms. Plenty of those complexes were captured by Jiří Kaňovský, Czechia’s most consistent observer. All halos were observed in Černotín, central Moravia. Most of the pictures shown are stacked frames.

15^th of March 

This halo complex lasted a whole day. Apart from more frequent halo forms, some more rare appeared as well, particularly Wegener and Lowitz.

12^th of April

The morning started with low-vis odd-radii circular halos – 18° and 23° (not pictured here)
Later stage of the display was dominated by very bright Lowitz arcs. The display ended with “the classics.”

30^th of April

Yet another display that spanned the whole day. The display started with circumscribed halo and some odd-radii circular halos as well (9° and a questionable 24°). A weak Wegener was observed, too. The display ended with nicely visible uppercave Parry and high-alt circumzenithal arc.

7^th of May

This display was the 3rd time Jiří observed the Wegener arc. This time the arc had nicely visible orange edges which made the arc stand out in the B-R processing. The end of display showed another high-alt circumzenithal arc.

20^th of May 

Purely odd-radii halo display with 9°, 18°, 20°, 23°, 24° and 35° circular halos and weaker 23° plate arc.  

23^rd of May

High Sun altitude display with circumscribed halo, 46° halo, weak circumhorizontal arc, infralateral arcs and full parhelic circle.