Antarctic ice halos 'Best I've ever seen'
A professor at the University of Minnesota captured an amazing atmospheric optics show in Antarctica while researching ice core climate records.
This stunning video from the Canisteo Peninsula in Antarctica shows a stunning view of the sun causing a halo effect over the landscape on Jan. 18.
Snow and ice in winter often combine to create stunning winter landscapes. A dazzling winter phenomenon known as ice halos was recently captured in Antarctica. The footage was shot by Dr. Peter Neff, a professor at the University of Minnesota and Director for Field Research and Data for COLDEX, who shared the video of ice halos on Jan. 18.
"Best Antarctic sun halos and dogs I've ever seen!" Neff exclaimed on TikTok, panning 360 degrees around the frigid remote station at Canisteo Peninsula, Antarctica.
Unlike rainbows, which result from sunlight reflecting and refracting off water droplets, ice halos occur when sunlight reflects and refracts off small ice crystals near the ground, called diamond dust, or those in thin, high clouds.
Neff's video shows a wide breadth of different kinds of ice halos. The atmospheric optics showcased include a 46-degree halo, a 22-degree halo with parhelion (sun dogs), upper and lower tangent arcs, a parhelic circle and infralateral arcs.
COLDEX is an NSF Science and Technology Center formed in 2021 to explore Antarctica for the oldest possible ice core records of Earth's climate.
Ice halos can occur anywhere in the world when weather conditions are right but are most common during winter. Photos of ice halos like these have previously been featured in AccuWeather's Weather Permitting Photo Blog from New York, Key West, Florida, and Germany.
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