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Among the best-known halos is the 22° halo, often just called "halo", which appears as a large ring around the Sun or Moon with a radius of about 22° (roughly the width of an outstretched hand at arm's length).
That’s why, like rainbows, halos around the sun – or moon – are personal. Everyone sees their own unique halo, made by the ice crystals from their point of view.
Ever seen a ghostly rainbow halo around the Sun? A Sun halo is caused by the refraction, reflection, and dispersion of light through ice particles suspended within thin, wispy, high altitude cirrus or cirrostratus clouds.
Sun Pillars appear as a shaft of light extending vertically above the sun, most often at sunrise or sundown. They develop as a result of ice crystals slowly falling through the air, reflecting the sun’s rays off of them.
One of these phenomena is the solar halo, also known as the sun halo. A solar halo appears as a luminous ring, circle, or arc around the sun, often displaying a range of colors. But what causes this stunning spectacle to occur, and why is it so rare?
Rainbows are caused by water droplets, whereas sun halos are caused by ice crystals. What Shapes Can A Sun Halo Be? The term “halo” usually implies a ring — and circular halos around the sun (and moon) are common.
Solar halos or 22-degree halos are hazy rainbow-colored rings that occur at a radius of approximately 22 degrees around the sun. It results from the sun's light being refracted by ice crystals in Cirrus clouds in the upper troposphere at altitudes of approximately 6000 meters or 20 000 feet.
Sun dogs often display the colors of the rainbow (with reds facing toward the Sun and blues away from it). Depending on the sky conditions, you may only see one or two Sun dogs approximately 22 degrees (about the distance of two fists) away from the Sun.
"Some people might call it a rainbow around the Sun, but it's actually caused by ice crystals," said scientist Michael Kavulich with the National Center for Atmospheric Research. That difference is critical.
Halo, any of a wide range of atmospheric optical phenomena that result when the Sun or Moon shines through thin clouds composed of ice crystals. These phenomena may be due to the refraction of light that passes through the crystals, or the reflection of light from crystal faces, or a combination of.