Moilanen arc display with cell phone camera

Jaakko Tähti photographed this moderate display with Moilanen arc on 12. January 2007 in Viitasaari. "The halo display lasted for about four hours and changed constantly. It was a pity I was working inside. At times however I went to take some pics", says Tähti who used his cell phone camera for photographing. The vague double structure in the upper tangent arc seems to indicate that the display contains also an upper sunvex Parry arc.

The following night diamond dust was drifting also in Tampere and Hyvinkää. See the divergent light halos by Jari Luomanen and Jukka Ruoskanen.

Moon halo over Southern Finland - oriented columns in command

Little after midnight on the night of 5-6th January a fairly bright 22 halo and upper tangent arc appeared in high clouds. At this stage nothing implied that anything better would be on the way. However, at around 1.30 a.m. the halos arising from oriented columns had got much better and upper and lower tangent arcs stretched out to form a circumscribed halo. Infralateral arcs and a 9 halo appeared as well. Judging from the quality of circumscribed halo and infralateral arcs at the maximum phase one might suspect that rays scattered by oriented columns may have partially contributed to the intensity of the 9 halo.

The display ended at around 4 a.m. when low level clouds rolled in. Shortly before that 46 halo and parhelic circle were well formed (although faint). According to the reports so far the display was best seen in Tampere (photos by Jari Luomanen) and in Riihimaki (photos by Jukka Ruoskanen) .

Diamond dust haloes in the German Alps

On 11th of december 2006 I saw a wonderful diamond dust phenomenon in the Wendelstein area in the altitude of ca. 1100m. It was the best in my life! I was a part of it and around me floated ice crystals with different white and coloured arcs. Directly over my head was formed an aura, the upper tangent arc I could touch and on the opposite side of the sun were some white arcs crossed in three-dimensional space.

The origin of ice crystals were definitely natural. The clouds came from the very cold Inn valley and creeped up the mountain sattle. The sun elevation was 18 to 20 degrees.

I've seen with naked eye the following haloes: : 22° halo, upper and lower tangent arc (extremely bright!), complete sun pillar, 46°halo (very faint lower part), complete parhelic circle, anthelion, 120deg parhelia, infra- and supralateral arcs, Wegeners anthelic arc (one of the cross bows), Tricker's and diffuse anthelic arcs, heliac arc, subhelic arcs and Moilanen arc.

More pictures are here.

Diamond dust halos over open sea

It is not so often to see diamond dust halos over the open sea, like here in the photograph of Pasi Snellman, taken on 5 November in Porvoo, Southern Finland. The display occurred only above the sea indicating that the open water was the moisture source for ice crystal growth. A couple of of kilometers upwind from the bridge is a small ski center, and according to Snellman snow making was under way there.

This may have provided the nuclei for the ice crystal formation. Snellman also tells that the air temperature was -7° C and sea +5° C.

On 5 November good diamond dust was seen also in Jämsä and Lahti, the latter of which is not reported here in Haloreports.

Halo phenomena at 09/12/2006 in Mongolia

Richard Löwenherz made a cycle tour across Mongolia and while in Bajantes he witnessed a wonderful halo display. Up to 15 different types of halo (here the German halo key) were simultaneously visible. Unfortunately there are no photos because on the 10th day of the 6-week cycle tour the camera failed. However, I think, the sketch give a no less beautiful impression of the multiplicity of the kinds of halo which he could all see with the naked eye! Apart from this spectacular event, hardly any other halos were seen in Mongolia.

Lunar display in Switzerland

On Nov/11/2006 I observed a nice high moon halo display in Switzerland. Visible was a bright circumscribed halo and a infralateral or circumhorizon arc.

Lunar Diamond Dust Display in Pälkäne, Finland

In the evening of 4 November this lunar display graced the sky soon after sunset. Among the halo forms observed are the rare heliac arc, Tape arcs and Moilanen arc. The Moon elevation is ca. 16°.

In the image the entire length of the heliac arc is visible as a beautiful loop encircling the zenith. The Moilanen arc is very intensive and appears to extend beyond the 22 degree halo. Tape arcs can be seen as diffuse brightenings on the supralateral arc.

In the beams of the passing cars a bright pillar, parhelia, upper tangent arc and Moilanen arc were clearly visible. These proved difficult to photograph though. At the local ski resort the snow guns were operating during the display and the crystal swarm was a by-product of this activity. The temperature was below -15 °C.