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image credit & copyright: Magnus Edback



what extraordinary display of beautiful solar ice halos !

more common than rainbows, simple ice halos can be easy to spot, especially if you can shade your eyes from direct sunlight

still it's extremely rare to see anything close to the complex of halos present in this astounding scene

captured at lunchtime on a cold december 14 near Utendal, Sweden the image includes the relatively ordinary 22 degree halo, sundogs (parhelia) and sun pillars

the extensive array of rarer halos has been identified along with previously unknown features

all the patterns are generated as sunlight (or moonlight) is reflected and refracted in flat six-sided water ice crystals in Earth's atmosphere

in this case, likely local contributors to the atmospheric ice crystals are snow making machines operating at at nearby ski center

































in apod.nasa.gov/apod