Late this afternoon, there were sundogs and a sunbow... but have you ever seen a sunbow that was curved away from the sun, instead of around it? I never have.
Sundogs are bright spots on one or both
sides of the sun, often within a 22° halo.
They are caused by the refraction of sunlight by ice crystals, generally
in cirrus or cirrostratus clouds high in the atmosphere. A sunbow or sun halo is an entire rainbow
ring around the sun. This upside-down
rainbow that I got a picture of is called a circumzenithal arc, also belonging
to the family of halos. The CZA is one
of the brightest and most colorful members of the halo family. Its colors, ranging from violet on top to red
at the bottom, are purer than those of a rainbow, because there is much less
overlap in their formation.
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