Solar Coronae
What are those colorful rings around the Sun? A corona visible only to Earth observers in the right place at the right time. Rings like this will sometimes appear when the Sun or Moon is seen through thin clouds. The effect is created by the quantum mechanical diffraction of light around individual, similarly-sized water droplets in an intervening but mostly-transparent cloud.
Since light of different colors has different wavelengths, each color diffracts differently. Solar Coronae are one of the few quantum color effects that can be easily seen with the unaided eye. This type of solar corona is a visual effect due to water in Earth's atmosphere and is altogether different from the solar corona that exists continually around the Sun -- and stands out during a total solar eclipse. In the foreground is the famous Himalayan mountain peak Ama Dablam (Mother's Necklace).
Image Credit & Copyright: Jeff Dai
Photo & info via APOD
http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/astropix.html
Read & learn:
http://www.atoptics.co.uk/droplets/corona.htm
#naturalphenomena #coronae
Here in Saskatchewan we call it "sun dogs" and in winter we get the ice crystal version frequently. They rarely make full rings, instead just two bright spots, slightly vertical looking, to either side of the sun. They'll often have the spectrum tapering off to top and bottom of the bright center.
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