7. March 2016 by Marko Riikonen

An unknown halo next to the sub-Kern arc

On the night of 6/7 January we had this anticipation that something unusual will occur in the beam because the temperature was forecasted to drop below -30° C. It was clearly a dreamer’s thought, based only on the reason that no one had photographed snow gun originated diamond dust displays below that mark.

When we called it a wraps near the twilight hours, nothing out of the ordinary had happened. But after we woke up and started looking at the photos from the night’s plate displays, there was visible, next to the sub-Kern, an arc that we did not recognize. It was captured at two different locations with three hours passing in between.

Here are those two photos where the arc is seen. In addition, there is an anomalous looking bulge in the sub-Kern arc where the exotic arc is pointing at.

We don’t know how this new halo is formed, nor how to simulate it. It’s a one weird arc.

The lamp was at the usual -5 degree elevation.

Jarmo Moilanen / Marko Mikkilä / Nicolas Lefaudeux / Marko Riikonen

21. February 2016 by Claudia Hinz

Double Halos

During a sunrise on 2013, May 13th I saw from the Zugspitze (2963m) two pillars with different inclinations. The most remote pillar was diffuse and came from virga below altocumulus; the other one originated from nearby icefog and was narrow and distinct. Unfortunately in most of my photos the two pillars overlap, but at the end they show up separate. The 3-D impression was very fascinating.

Subsuns appear very often during wintertime. It may happen that they appear in two different ice clouds: one of them may be affected by sheer wind causing the crystals to be tilted. Then, two subsuns are visible, one of them being displaced from the solar vertical. A displaced subsun is often a indicator for imminent sheer winds at the observer’s spot.