Friday, May 25, 2012

Circumhorizontal Arc

On a fine early morning, when the flight from Bangalore International Airport to London – Heathrow, climbed up the heights, I could see this Circumhorizontal Arc. (Look at the upper right-hand side of the first picture and slightly towards left from the center of the second picture to spot it.) But I am not sure if it is a Circumhorizontal Arc, or a sundog. The Wikipedia definition says that “a sundog is an atmospheric phenomenon that creates bright spots of light in the sky, often on a luminous ring or halo on either side of the sun”. You can read more about sundog in http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sun_dog.Circumhorizontal arcs or fire bow are formed not from water droplets in sky, but due to the presence of ice crystals in sky in the form of Cirrus clouds. More info about Circumhorizontal arcs is available at wikipedia => Circumhorizontal Arc
Here is another similar optical event that I captured long back ago that looks like a Circumhorizontal Arc =>A Rainbow or a Circumhorizontal arc!!! and here is yet another capture that I made a while back that looked like a Sundog =>Parhelion

3 comments:

  1. I learnt something new today :).
    I checked out the other pictures too. You are a major sky-watcher eh. So good that you make use of every opportunity to capture these rare moments, Deepu.

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    1. Dear D.Nambiar,
      Happy that you visited the other "optics" labelled posts also. Today I feel so happy that I could photograph the rare event of Venus Transit over sun (Solar eclipse by Venus). Even though, this happened a few years back, the next occurrence to be seen from Earth is calculated to happen after 105 years. Next time, when you come back, please check the latest post with those photographs.
      Once again congratulations for achieving "Travel Blogger award". :)

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