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Halos in Boston Sky   -  By: Babak A. Tafreshi

On October 27, 2012, the day before Hurricane Sandy hits the eastern coast of the United States, an unusually strong atmospheric halo around the sun is photographed from downtown Boston. Large halo around the Moon or the sun occurs when high thin clouds containing millions of tiny ice crystals cover much of the sky. Each ice crystal acts like a miniature lens. Because most of the crystals have a similar elongated hexagonal shape, light entering one crystal face and exiting through the opposing face refracts 22 degrees, which corresponds to the radius of the Sun or the Moon Halo. But in this view there are more aspects of the atmospheric optics. On one side of the halo a sundog is visible (bright colorful spots on the 22-degree halo with a ray coming out of them). Above the halo shines an upper "tangent arc" and further away from the sun is the giant rare 46° halo (92° in diameter) with more obvious colors and a prominent tangent arc.

 


    Item Code: 102644


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