March - cumulus You are here: Home Photo gallery Atmospheric optics Ice crystal halos 9o parhelion


A parhelion, 9o below the sun, caused by refraction of light by oriented, pyramidal ice crystals. During the halo display on May 26, 1999, at my living place Wijdenes, The Netherlands, it suddenly appeared in a minute and was gone 4 minutes later. I was just looking at the right place to get a view and a photograph of this rare phenomenon. During my observation, the parhelion was more clearly defined than on the photo below, showing an inverted V shape with a reddish color towards the sun.

1 photo in gallery
Click images for large photos




w-055-07