September 14, 2018
Some stars end in silence, some in fire, and some leave behind the raw materials for birthdays.
Ice Halos at Yellowknife
Birthday · September 14, 2018
A little universe, just for you
Your date.
Ready to give.
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APOD published September 14, 2018. Credit: Stephen Bedingfield. A publication-date match, not a photo taken on your date. Independent of NASA.
You've probably seen a circle around the Sun before. More common than rainbows, ice halos, like a 22 degree circular halo for example, can be easy to spot, especially if you can shade your eyes from direct sunlight. Still it's rare to see such a diverse range of ice halos, including sundogs, tangent, infralateral, and Parry arcs, all found in this snapshot from planet Earth. The picture was quickly taken in the late morning of September 4 from Yellowknife, Northwest Territories, Canada. The beautiful patterns are generated as sunlight (or moonlight) is reflected and refracted in six-sided water ice crystals in Earth's atmosphere. Of course, atmospheric ice halos in the skies of other worlds are likely to be different.
Image credit: Stephen Bedingfield