Nature often surprises us with images so impressive that they seem straight out of a dream. When observing amazing colors and shapes as in the case of the northern lights, we realize that nature surpasses our imagination.
However, science has an explanation for the physical phenomena that surprise us the most. An example that nature can create incredible light effects are rainbows, although they are not the only ones. Below we present a series of amazing natural effects that you probably didn’t know about, but that appear in the sky and never cease to amaze us.
Parhelion
This phenomenon has impressed people around the world because when projected onto the sky it forms circular figures that look like enormous eyes. The reason why this beautiful phenomenon exists is thanks to an optical effect in which the light coming from the Sun is reflected by the ice crystals present in the earth, which causes a kind of lens to form that projects bright lights around it. of the Sun. This can manifest itself in one or two points.
Halo
You have probably seen a circle of light form around the Sun, and although it amazes us, this event is relatively common. This type of optical phenomenon is known as Halo and occurs when there is an interaction between ice crystals suspended in the atmosphere and light. Halos can appear in many shapes, sizes and shapes, ranging from a ring of light or a circular rainbow, to a curious band of colors that defies our understanding.
Glory or Anthelion
The glories or anthelion are a similar effect to halos of light, since they also look like circles in the sky. Unlike other phenomena, they are observed as a series of rings of light and occur, for example, when an airplane flies over a bank of clouds, and are formed when light is crossed by a cloud of small droplets of uniform size that causes a kind of multicolored shadow that is seen against the light in the sky.
circumzenithal arch
Although this phenomenon is part of the group of halos, it is distinguished by looking similar to a rainbow although in an inverse way, so that it looks like an inverted rainbow. The arc that forms in the sky shows a band of bright colors in which reddish tones appear at the top.
noctilucent clouds
The , also known as “polar mesospheric clouds”, are phenomena in the form of bright clouds that are projected in the night sky. They are formed thanks to ice crystals that occur in the highest layers of the atmosphere and are visible at the end of twilight. They are normally seen frequently in the summer months, according to the World Meteorological Organization.
iridescent clouds
Clouds are a rare phenomenon that causes various colors to appear in the sky. The iridescence effect appears as a result of the diffraction of sunlight through small water droplets, or even small crystals that make up clouds. When the sun’s rays pass through the small droplets that make up the clouds, the light is deflected and shows a spectrum of rays that is as beautiful as it is impressive.
Polar aurora and aurora australis
One of the best-known optical phenomena are the polar and southern auroras. Both consist of beautiful spectacles of light, but they take their name according to the place where they appear: if the auroras appear at the South Pole, they are known as the Aurora Australis or the Southern Lights; while if they happen in the Northern Hemisphere, they take the name of Aurora Borealis or Northern Lights. They happen when the Sun sends particles of energy that reflect through the sun, creating impressive patterns of light.