Ice Crystal Halos

Diamond dust displays in Sudelfeld Pass

Diamond dust displays in Sudelfeld Pass

The new year started with two nice diamond dust displays on 3 and 7 January. The weather situation was similar: above the Inn valley there was a low stratus layer with an upper limit of ca. 1000-1200m. The passable Sudelfeld Pass is situated in this level, where I’ve already seen several diamond dust haloes. In the afternoon the clouds dissipated and desintegrated into ice crystals.

On 3 January columns dominated. The 22° parhelia, the upper tangent arc with convex Parry arc and the colourful supra- and infralateral arcs appeared in –6°C ( 1 ).

The haloes on 7 January (see image above) were produced at a temperature of –8°C and consisted mainly of plates. The appearance of the phenomena changed at seconds intervals. We observed 22° halo with parhelia, upper and lower sun pillar, CZA, 46° halo, subsun, sub parhelia, parhelic circle with 120° parhelia and anthelion, heliac arc, Wegener’s arc and Moilanen arc ( 2 ).

Text: Claudia Hinz

4 comments

  • A beautiful and rich classic display from down south. I wonder if anyone could exploit the recent perigy full moon w.r. to haloes

    Reply
  • A beautiful and rich classic display from the Alps. I wonder if anyone could exploit the recent perigy full moon w.r. to haloes

    Reply
  • Another one of those interesting “Parry without tangent arc” -cases. And CZA is top notch.

    Reply

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