Atmospheric optical phenomena amaze the imagination with the beauty and variety of created illusions. The most spectacular are pillars of light, false suns, fiery crosses, gloria and a broken ghost, which often people who do not know take for a Miracle or Epiphany.
Near-horizontal arc, or "fiery rainbow"
Light travels through ice crystals in cirrus clouds. A very rare occurrence, as both ice crystals and sunlight must be at a certain angle to each other in order to create the effect of a “fire rainbow”.
Ghost of Brokken
The phenomenon got its name from the Brocken peak in Germany, where you can regularly observe this effect: a person standing on a hill or mountain, behind whose back the sun rises or sets, discovers that his shadow, falling on the clouds, becomes incredibly huge. This is due to the fact that the smallest droplets of fog refract and reflect sunlight in a special way.
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The peri-zenith arch
An arc centered at the zenith, approximately 46 ° above the Sun. It is rarely seen and only for a few minutes, has bright colors, clear outlines and is always parallel to the horizon. To an outside observer, she will remind the smile of the Cheshire Cat or an inverted rainbow.
"Foggy" rainbow
The hazy halo looks like a colorless rainbow. The fog that gives rise to this halo consists of smaller particles of water, and the light refracting in tiny droplets does not color it.
Gloria
You can only observe this effect on clouds that are directly in front of the viewer or below him, at a point that is on the opposite side to the light source. Thus, Gloria can be seen only from a mountain or from an airplane, and the light sources (the Sun or the Moon) must be located directly behind the observer's back.
Halo at 22º
White circles of light around the Sun or Moon, which result from the refraction or reflection of light by ice or snow crystals in the atmosphere, are called halos. During the cold season, halos formed by ice and snow crystals on the earth's surface reflect sunlight and scatter it in different directions, creating an effect called diamond dust.
Rainbow clouds
When the Sun is at a certain angle to the water droplets that make up the cloud, these droplets refract the sunlight and create an unusual rainbow cloud effect, painting it in all the colors of the rainbow.
Moonlight rainbow (night rainbow)
A rainbow produced by the moon rather than the sun. The lunar rainbow is comparatively paler than normal. This is because the moon produces less light than the sun. The lunar rainbow is always on the opposite side of the sky from the moon.
Parhelion
One form of halo in which one or more additional images of the Sun are observed in the sky.
In the "Lay of Igor's Regiment" it is mentioned that before the Polovtsian offensive and Igor's capture "four suns shone over the Russian land." The warriors took this as a sign of impending great disaster.
Aurora borealis
The glow of the upper layers of the atmospheres of planets with a magnetosphere due to their interaction with charged particles of the solar wind.
St. Elmo's lights
A discharge in the form of luminous beams or brushes arising at the sharp ends of tall objects (towers, masts, lonely standing trees, sharp tops of rocks, etc.) at a high electric field strength in the atmosphere.
Zodiacal light
The diffused glow of the night sky, created by sunlight reflected from particles of interplanetary dust, is also called zodiacal light. Zodiac light can be observed in the evening in the west or in the morning in the east.
Pillars of light
Flat ice crystals reflect light in the upper atmosphere and form vertical columns of light, as if emanating from the earth's surface. The light sources can be the Moon, the Sun or artificial lights.
Star trail
Invisible to the naked eye, it can be captured by the camera.
White rainbow
Photo taken at the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco.
Buddha light
The phenomenon is similar to Brokken's Ghost. The sun's rays are reflected from atmospheric water droplets over the sea and the plane's shadow in the middle of the rainbow circle …
Green ray
“When the setting sun is completely out of sight, the last glimpse looks startling green. The effect can only be observed from places where the horizon is low and distant. It only lasts a few seconds."
False Sun
The scientific explanation is: “As water freezes in the upper atmosphere, it creates small, flat, hexagonal ice crystals of ice. The planes of these crystals, whirling, gradually descend to the ground, most of the time they are oriented parallel to the surface."
Halo around the moon
In this image to the left of the Moon is Jupiter:
Almost nothing is known about ball lightning
And the nature of its occurrence is incomprehensible, not studied. This is due to the fact that this is a very rare occurrence. The probability of seeing CMM - 0.01%
Mirage
A long-known natural phenomenon …
Moonlight Rainbow
This is a rather rare occurrence in the Earth's atmosphere and only appears during a full moon. For the appearance of a lunar rainbow, it is necessary: a full moon, not covered by clouds, and a heavy rainfall. A real lunar rainbow is half the size of the sky.
Mountain shadow
Observed against the backdrop of evening clouds:
