My lovely and talented wife has a habit of being in the right place at the right time to capture nature doing interesting things. This particular shot was taken by cell phone from a moving vehicle in Northern California last night and shows something I’ve never seen before.
Those of you looking for the elusive “green flash” at sunset might never have considered that you can also get the full spectrum of colors too.
This is looking into the sunset, and isn’t your typical rainbow where the sun is illuminating from behind at sunset, such as this one from NASA APOD.
Note: depending on your computer monitor and its settings, you may or may not be able to make out the spectrum. Some adjustment might be needed. What works best for Internet browsing isn’t the best for photos.
Ice crystals in the atmosphere is what I think is the most likely explanation, making a circumhorizontal arc, which is an optical phenomenon. Basically it is an ice-halo formed by plate-shaped ice crystals in high level cirrus clouds. In the photo above, only part of the arc is visible.
An example:
Circumhorizontal arc in relation to 22° halo or circumscribed halo, Oregon – Image: Wikipedia
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When you get the full halo, there are two false suns horizontally. These are called sun dogs.
Sweet!!!
While I have never seen this in a sunset, it is a commone occurance during the day time up here in Alberta in the winter.
Very cool (or cold?)
Timely shot and I can see the spectrum – seems rather thick color layers. One of the most beautiful sightings of a standard rainbow for me was when flying in a helicopter doing geolgical fieldwork in a sunshower and seeing two bright and sharp concentric rainbows in complete circles (raincircles?) with the shadow of the helicopter a speck on the ground in the center.
Dang, missed it entirely!
@ur momisugly Jim Cripwell Here in NE Florida where I live, sundogs are very common. I see them every week or two. Oddly, most people I have spoken to about them, have simply never noticed. I know local residents nearing retirement age who tell me, “Gosh! I’ve never seen that before!” when I point them out. Makes one wonder how many marvels we humans pass each day and never notice.
Not only the Sun but the recent Full Moon also
http://spaceweathergallery.com/indiv_upload.php?upload_id=91608
I think Scientific American ran a story in the recent 5 years on the phenomenon of the spherical or 360 degree “rainbow.” The phenomenon is not the same optics as the typical rainbow.
One of the few SciAm articles in the last several years that was not thinly veiled PC stuff.
This Summer in July this is the July not now when they are commoin
Beautiful
Anthony, what you have is known as a ‘corona,’ a full spectrum double set of of tight halos around the sun, usually seen at altitude. Your wife’s shot is a very rare example of one on the horizon.
To get a CHA the sun has to be at an altitude of 56 degrees or more. On our side of the ‘Big Pond’ aka The Pacific down here on the SW side CHA’s can only occur between October & February. I’m guessing that on your side it would be April to August and maybe a little longer depending upon your latitude, i.e. the closer to the equator the more time the sun spends above 56 degrees in altitiude.
In the end you are correct in that your wife does have the knack of capturing such rare events, well done.
Coops.
I have seen the green flash 5 times, 4 times at sea and once standing on the beach in Curacao.
Until I saw it for the first time I thought it was just one of those wind-up things for first trippers, like long stands, or buckets of steam to prime the windlass.
Although an astrophysicist by training, and even teaching astronomy and physics and running a small observatory in the MidWest, I have never seen the “green flash”. Last year, visiting with family in San Diego, we went to the Green Flash restaurant, so named because it looks out on an unobstructed view of the Pacific where one might be able to see the phenomenon. http://greenflashrestaurant.com/
After explaining to the family the general idea of the green flash, I watched carefully with them as the sun sank to the horizon. Suddenly they all exclaimed “There it is!” I was the only one who didn’t see it, apparently having blinked at the crucial moment.
Those so called sun dogs or rings around the sun are common.
This is a specific phenomenon and ONLY one that lasts (usually) a few seconds.
I think everyone seen a halo effect around the sun on a day with some fog, or even light rain. And many seen a rainbow.
NONE of the above mentioned effects are the SAME as the green flash that lasts only a few seconds. Until reading the links here – never heard of this effect.
Dash it, pressed the post button too soon.
I have no idea what causes the green flash but it is one of the things you never forget once you have seen it.
But I thought…
Next you’ll be telling me gamma rays don’t actually turn people into hulking green superheroes.
/sarc? /silly.
Very nice; thank her for us.
We chased the end of rainbow a few weeks back. Darn Leprechauns kept moving it and we never got the pot of gold.
~~~~~
TheLastDemocrat must have missed the statement from the spouse of the photographer:
“This is looking into the sunset, and isn’t your typical rainbow where the sun is illuminating from behind at sunset, . . . ”
A friend of mine has a few photos from many years ago, when he lived in the tropics and caught many such strange phenomena on film. IIRC the most of them he saw was in West Africa at the end of the summer dry season.
Like your picture, they are a strange sight. I unfortunately have only seen photos of them.
I’m a former Pan Am pilot having crossed oceans hundreds of times. Every sunset I looked for the green flash , saw it only twice.
I used to fly from Gibraltar to the UK and twice saw the entire sky as one giant spectrum. Both times due to French air traffic control’s industrial action necessitating a different flight path to the norm.
Beautiful seems such an inadequate word sometimes.
Anthony, your wife shot a beautiful picture of a rare optic phenomenon due to the sunset and the far mountains who shield the sun. This so called corona most happened with the sun (much) higher in the sky. Details of this and many others atmospheric optics you can find on http://atoptics.co.uk/droplets/corona.htm
While serving as a bilge swab on a commercial fishing trawler back in the summer of 1981 I occassionally had the opportunity to come up on deck and breath fresh air for a short time. One evening I was resting against the checkers, gazing out at the sunset, when just as the sun went below the horizon (there was nothing but water between me and Japan) I witnessed a green glimmer, then a full on flash. I saw it only once more after that but feel fortunate for having seen it with my own eyes. Unfortunately I did not have a camera along with me. Even had I brought one it would have been confiscated by the skipper and used to barter for more slaves.
Having lived in San Diego and at the beach for most of my life, I can say I have seen the green flash many times. The thing I have noticed is that it has to be a perfectly clear day with absolutely no haze. The best conditions have been, in my experience, cold (<60F….yes that is cold in SD…), dry (<30% Humidity….again this is considered dry in SD..) and calm. I always wondered if the flash was actually the sunlight refracting through the ocean at just the right angle, since it happens just as the last bit of orange disappears below the horizon.
I have watched hundreds of sunsets…no green flash.
The rarest type is the Complex Solar Halo. In 1962, I saw one in the S. Atlantic, whilst on Passage to Capetown.. Here are some examples.http://epod.usra.edu/blog/2013/02/halo-complex-above-hanover-germany.html http://adsabs.harvard.edu/full/1925JRASC..19..115C (See diagram)
gopal panicker – Green flashes occur at sea and are quite common. They occur when the sea is flat calm.