Rare but rewarding to see, a little rainbow off to the side of the Sun, such spectacles are known as sundogs, mock suns or parhelia. Sundogs are just sunlight refracting through hexagonal falling ice crystals in the Earth’s atmosphere. Image © Juan Manuel Pérez Rayego
Rainbows exhibit the colors we’re all familiar with when they’re not at their highest position in the sky. As the Sun sets, rainbows arch higher and higher without much of change in color. However, once the Sun dips below the horizon, the increased path length of sunlight alters a rainbow’s appearance. Image credit: Phil Thomson; Phil’s Web site
According to a new study published this week in the journal Environmental Research Letters, reflecting sunlight back into space is actually “the cheapest way for us to combat global warming”. Image credit: Robert Chase
In the foreground of this stunning image, is the Basilica of the Sacred Heart, built in the late 1800s and located on the highest hill in Paris, France. Next, are thin clouds forward scattering sunlight. Finally, far in the distance and slightly buried into the Sun’s surface, are sunspots, the most prominent of which is sunspot region AR 1512 visible near the disk center. Image credit: VegaStar Carpentier
SolarSonic by sculptor Ray King, inspired by the ancient Chinese “Bi,” the Neolithic jade discs, is a series of 14 lenses suspended within the terminal’s exterior glass canopy structure.
The photo above showing a breathtaking Sun pillar was captured at sunset near Jenison, Michigan on April 10, 2012. Sun pillars result from the reflection of sunlight off the bottom surfaces (or less frequently, the top surfaces) of plate-shaped ice crystals composing cirrus clouds. Photographer: Kevin Povenz; Kevin’s Flickr Web site
How many of you have ever seen a rainbow like the one above? The presence of water nearby is the key to having a chance to observe such a bow. This picture was snapped in Swan Bay, just off the Bellarine Peninsula of Victoria, Australia. Photographer: Phil Thomson; Phil’s Website
Although the scene may appear somehow supernatural, nothing more unusual is occurring than a setting Sun and some well placed clouds. Pictured above are anticrepuscular rays. Photographer Nate Cassell
The photo above shows a jaunty rainbow stretching over a cornfield near Piberbach, Austria. My shadow clearly shows the direction of the antisolar point — the only direction where rainbows can be observed. Photographer: Herbert Raab; Herbert’s Web site
