7/20/2005: Circumzenithal Arc
 

http://cellar.org/2005/zirkumzenitalbogenii.jpg

Today's Earth Science Pic of the Day is breathtaking, an absolute stunner. At first I thought it must be enhanced, but no - as the official caption from photographer Thomas Herrmann has it:

Sitting in a garden in Erlensee, Germany on May 27, I realized that cirrus clouds were visible all across the sky. Knowing that these clouds can provide an opportunity to observe atmospheric phenomena, I kept an eye on the sky and was rewarded by seeing the amazing circumzenithal arc, shown above. With just a little imagination, you can see seahorses floating inside the arc. Circumzenithal arcs are perhaps the most colourful of all halo-related phenomena. In fact, many people who witness them believe they're rainbows because of their beauty and arc-like shape. However, contrary to a rainbow, which forms a circle around the antisolar point, a circumzenithal arc appears, as its name implies, at the zenith. Only the portion pointing towards the Sun is visible.

I still don't quite understand it.

CoolCoolCool!!! I want the poster!

looks like a little yellow electric person jumping off the end.....

I don't understand the caption entirely, but I do know this is cool. And very beautiful. I guess you can only see these in Germany. I've never seen anything close to this. Very interesting. Input. Input. Input. Thanx.
This guy was really lucky to get this shot.

If you go to the link there is a link to the photographers website. It's not in English but I actually spent a couple hours looking at his pictures yesterday. :eek:

Hmmm, I guess that's not the same kind of thing I saw.

<a href="http://photos13.flickr.com/19227211_5b8abd983a_b.jpg">Here's a couple</i> <a href="http://photos15.flickr.com/19227212_0a32228f97_b.jpg">shots</a> of a rainbow-like thing I saw over Phoenix a couple months back.

I'm still not sure what it was. Just a very dense cloud acting like a prism.

And did you see <a href="http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/8631798/">why the sky is blue? And why it <i>really</i> isn't</a>. Cool article.

Looks like little seahorses dancing!

Those are sundogs...one on each side of the sun.

ahh, thanks
 

everyday I tell ya. Every day.

How did you know that? I've never heard of sundogs. You amaze me, els. :) The Cellar is an amazing place.

How can they be sun dogs if they're 48 degrees above the sun? Don't sun dogs flank the sun? :confused:

looking at the title of the thread....
 

.....all I could think of was Spencer Tunic (or whatever the dude's name is that takes pictures of all the naked people) and a knife.

-mike

Your thinking of Rabbi Turnick. ;)

I thought those *were* flanking the sun...

What did you do, drag out the antique protractor and measure the mean angle of the apparitions? :worried:

Bruce just knows.

No. I read the link. Is that cheating? :o

(As others have pointed out) That, my friend, is a sundog, also known as parahelia. Best one I ever saw myself was at Hanscom AFB in MA. Arizona's got a lot of great atmospheric optics, though.
-Pie

Bruce sez they aren't sundogs, due to the lack of an obligatory angular requirement.

Yes, Bruce...reading the links is, in fact, cheating. It makes it much harder for me to sound like I'm intelligent when people who actually *are* intelligent use logic and research to dispute points which I have carefully pulled out of my ass and tossed onto the screen. :p

Don't you call me a TW, I'll kick your ass. :lol2:

So, Els, do you have to pull them out carefully because you're such a tightass, or is it because they're, well, pointy?

This was taken over Dallas around 7-21-05. :mg: