Unusual Multiple Halo over San Francisco [Pyramidal Ice Crystals - "Odd Radius Halos"]

Skepthu, I believe that what you see in the picture may have been thought to be rare, but with the overwhelmingly abundant number of cameras, people taking pictures, and internet access, is now shown to be not that rare after all. As close as a century ago (relative, using all scientific observations of the sky prior to 1916), a phenomenon would be viewed, written about, submitted for publication, vetted for scientific accuracy, printed, and distributed to the people who were studying the sky scientifically.
Now the majority of the entire planet, which has many more people on it, have a camera at hand, and the vast majority of them are not "scientists." outside a Google/YouTube education. Then these unlearned people post on the internet with an air of authority, and are believed by other people who don't research well.
The original photographer is a case in point. He is a professional photographer, yet confuses the phenomenon of haloes (visible when looking at the sun) and rainbows (visible only when looking away from the sun) in a research article which was presented to the EPA. He also continues to believe he resides 7000 miles away from possible sources of aerosols, while living in a large city, in a large, polluted state. If you believe you cannot have winds from more than one directions, nor have local winds from being in an urban island, anything he says is worth thoroughly researching yourself.
And the best, most visual source is given above...Atmospheric Optics. It's a great site, and should be used more often.
 
Skepthu, I believe that what you see in the picture may have been thought to be rare, but with the overwhelmingly abundant number of cameras, people taking pictures, and internet access, is now shown to be not that rare after all.

But these particular halos ARE rare. The owner of Atmospheric Optics, Les Crowley, described this display as "magnificent and rare". Although he also says:

http://www.atoptics.co.uk/halo/pyrhalo.htm
Odd radius halos are perhaps not so 'odd' or rare as usually thought. Make a point of routinely searching for them.
Content from External Source
So it's all a bit relative to what you consider to be "rare". I've never seen one in my life, and I look for halos a lot. Patrick Roddie is very interested in halos and takes daily time-lapses of the passage of the sun, but this is the first he has recorded.

With the more common 22° halos, and sun dogs we can actually put numbers to it:
https://www.metabunk.org/how-rare-o...un-dogs-etc-a-review-of-the-literature.t6742/
 
With the more common 22° halos, and sun dogs we can actually put numbers to it:

Indeed. Mr. Crowley (no Ozzy jokes) says this regarding frequency of 22 degree halos:

Halos appear in our skies far more often than do rainbows. They can be seen on average twice a week in Europe and parts of the United States. The 22° radius circular halo and sundogs (parhelia) are the most frequent.
Content from External Source
http://www.atoptics.co.uk/halo/common.htm
 
Back
Top