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.

Diamond dust display in Jämsä

To fill the weekend of diamond dust halos in Finland, Simo Romo sent photographs of a display that was seen on sunday 5. November in Jämsä. The location is not far from Himos ski center where previous night and day Mika Aho photographed good displays, so it's probable that this one also originated from snow machines.

In addition to photographed halos there was also something else to be seen: "I was heading east and in the north-easten sky there was as if a brighter column of fog. Probably it was part of the phenomenon", writes Simo. Most likely he was looking at a diffuse anthelic arc.

The upper photograph is a panorama made of several individual images. The process has not been completely successful and that's why on the left side of upper tangent arc is an artefact.

Lunar display in France with 9° halo and Lowitz arcs

On the evening of 30 October 2006, I saw this lunar display in the west of France, close to Nantes. The photos were taken between 18h and 21h UT, the moon elevation was between 19 and 24 degrees.

A lot of halos were visible, including 9° halo, upper and lower Lowitz arc and a bright upper suncave Parry arc.

The orange colour of the sky is due to a strong light pollution. The images have been processed to reduce this effect and unsharp mask has been applied to enhance the halos. I got also nice displays the 2 previous days.

More images of the display here: 1, 2, 3.