|
|
| Summertime Halo: A colourful
circumhorizon arc spans
the sky near Fredericton, New Brunswick, Canada. The halo lights
brightest where the cirrus is thickest. Note the enormous size
of the halo and its pure spectral colours. Imaged by Marc Sorensen
in the summer of 2003. Image
©Marc Sorensen, shown with permission. |
Look for a circumhorizon arc near to noon near to the summer solstice
when the sun is very high in the sky (higher than 58°). It
lies well below the sun - twice as far from it (two hand
spans) as the
22º halo.
The arc
is a very large halo and is close to, and parallel to the horizon.
Usually only fragments are visible where there happen to be cirrus
clouds.
 |
|
| Circumhorizon
arc ray path |
|
The arc (sometimes called
a circumhorizontal arc) is usually produced by plate
oriented crystals
and is a close relation to the circumzenithal
arc.
Light rays enter the almost vertical crystal side faces and leave
via the lower horizontal face (ray path 3-1). The refraction of
the almost parallel sun's rays through faces inclined at 90° produces
pure, bright and well separated prismatic colours ~ purer than those
of the rainbow. The colours are at their best when the crystal tilts
are smallest. Large crystal tilts produce more pastel hues.
An infralateral arc can have a similar
shape and appearance when the sun is high. The CHA is everywhere the
same distance above the horizon whereas the infralateral arc is lowest
beneath the sun then curves upwards.
|
|
|