Bengaluru: Bengaluru residents woke up to a rare phenomenon on Monday morning when they saw a ‘rainbow-like halo’ around the sun. The stunning atmospheric optical phenomenon which appears like a rainbow coloured ring surrounding the sun, is known as solar halo.
What is Sun Helo?
A solar halo occurs due to the interaction of light with ice crystals suspended in troposphere, which is the lowest layer of Earth's atmosphere. Light is reflected and refracted by the ice crystals and may split into colors because of dispersion. The crystals behave like prisms and mirrors, refracting and reflecting light between their faces, sending shafts of light in particular directions.
Halos can have many forms, ranging from colored or white rings to arcs and spots in the sky. The particular shape and orientation of the crystals are responsible for the type of halo observed.
The beautiful glimpse captivated everyone's attention so much so that people took several pictures of the same and took it to the social media to share the little joy at the time when second strain of COVID-19 pandemic has led all the people in the country to get locked inside their houses again. Everybody's photography skills were on point as they captured the rare occurrence and will remember it forever.
Take a look at the Twitter user's pictures here:
The phenomenon seen in Bengaluru was witnessed last year as well. Another such ring was seen in Tamil Nadu's Rameswaram. Recently, Odisha had also witnessed an atmospheric phenomenon leading to ‘no shadow day’ in the city.