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Atmospheric Optical Phenomena
Atmospheric optical phenomena include: *Afterglow *Airglow * Alexander's band, the dark region between the two bows of a double rainbow. * Alpenglow * Anthelion * Anticrepuscular rays *Aurora (northern and southern lights, aurora borealis and aurora australis) * Belt of Venus * Brocken Spectre * Circumhorizontal arc * Circumzenithal arc *Cloud iridescence *Crepuscular rays *Earth's shadow * Earthquake lights * Glories * Green flash * Halos, of Sun or Moon, including sun dogs * Haze * Heiligenschein or halo effect, partly caused by the opposition effect * Ice blink *Light pillar *Lightning *Mirages (including Fata Morgana) * Monochrome Rainbow * Moon dog *Moonbow * Nacreous cloud/Polar stratospheric cloud *Rainbow *Sprite (lightning) * Subsun *Sun dog * Tangent arc *Tyndall effect * Upper-atmospheric lightning, including red sprites, Blue jets, and ELVES * Water sky See also References {{reflist * atmospheric optical phenomena Optical phenomena Optical phenomena ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Earthquake Light
An earthquake light also known as earthquake lightning or earthquake flash is a luminous optical phenomenon that appears in the sky at or near areas of tectonic stress, seismic activity, or volcanic eruptions. There is no broad consensus as to the causes of the phenomenon (or phenomena) involved. The phenomenon differs from disruptions to electrical grids – such as arcing power lines – which can produce bright flashes as a result of ground shaking or hazardous weather conditions. Appearance One of the first records of earthquake lights is from the 869 Jōgan earthquake, described as "strange lights in the sky" in Nihon Sandai Jitsuroku. The lights are reported to appear while an earthquake is occurring, although there are reports of lights before or after earthquakes, such as reports concerning the 1975 Kalapana earthquake. They are reported to have shapes similar to those of the auroras, with a white to bluish hue, but occasionally they have been reported having a wider ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Monochrome Rainbow
A monochrome or red rainbow is an optics, optical and meteorology, meteorological phenomenon and a rare variation of the more commonly seen multicolored rainbow. Its formation process is identical to that of a normal rainbow (namely the reflection/refraction of light in water droplets), the difference being that a monochrome rainbow requires the sun to be close to the horizon; i.e., near sunrise or sunset. The low angle of the sun results in a longer distance for its light to travel through the atmosphere, causing shorter wavelengths of light, such as blue, green and yellow, to be scattered and leaving primarily red. In the lower light environment where the phenomenon most often forms, a monochrome rainbow can leave a highly dramatic effect. In July 1877, Silvanus P. Thompson witnessed a red and orange rainbow over Lake Lucerne, Lake Lucerne in Switzerland:showed only red and orange colours in place of its usual array of hues. No fewer than five supernumerary arcs were visible at ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Fata Morgana (mirage)
A () is a complex form of Mirage#Superior mirage, superior mirage visible in a narrow band right above the horizon. The term ''Fata Morgana'' is the Italian translation of "Morgan the Fairy" (Morgan le Fay of Arthurian legend). These mirages are often seen in the Italian Strait of Messina, and were described as fairy castles in the air or false land conjured by her magic. Fata Morgana mirages significantly distort the object or objects on which they are based, often such that the object is completely unrecognizable. A Fata Morgana may be seen at sea or on land, in polar regions, or in deserts. It may involve almost any kind of distant object, including boats, islands, and the coastline. Often, a Fata Morgana changes rapidly. The mirage comprises several inverted (upside down) and upright images stacked on top of one another. Fata Morgana mirages also show alternating compressed and stretched zones. [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mirage
A mirage is a naturally-occurring optical phenomenon in which light rays bend via refraction to produce a displaced image of distant objects or the sky. The word comes to English via the French ''(se) mirer'', from the Latin ''mirari'', meaning "to look at, to wonder at". Mirages can be categorized as "inferior" (meaning lower), "superior" (meaning higher) and " Fata Morgana", one kind of superior mirage consisting of a series of unusually elaborate, vertically stacked images, which form one rapidly-changing mirage. In contrast to a hallucination, a mirage is a real optical phenomenon that can be captured on camera, since light rays are actually refracted to form the false image at the observer's location. What the image appears to represent, however, is determined by the interpretive faculties of the human mind. For example, inferior images on land are very easily mistaken for the reflections from a small body of water. Inferior mirage In an inferior mirage, the mirage im ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lightning
Lightning is a natural phenomenon consisting of electrostatic discharges occurring through the atmosphere between two electrically charged regions. One or both regions are within the atmosphere, with the second region sometimes occurring on the land, ground. Following the lightning, the regions become partially or wholly electrically neutralized. Lightning involves a near-instantaneous release of energy on a scale averaging between 200 megajoules and 7 gigajoules. The air around the lightning flash rapidly heats to temperatures of about . There is an emission of electromagnetic radiation across a wide range of wavelengths, some visible as a bright flash. Lightning also causes thunder, a sound from the shock wave which develops as heated gases in the vicinity of the discharge experience a sudden increase in pressure. The most common occurrence of a lightning event is known as a thunderstorm, though they can also commonly occur in other types of energetic weather systems, such ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Light Pillar
A light pillar or ice pillar is an atmospheric optics, atmospheric optical phenomenon in which a vertical light beam, beam of light appears to extend above and/or below a light source. The effect is created by the Reflection (physics), reflection of light from tiny ice crystals that are suspended in the atmosphere or that compose high-altitude clouds (e.g. cirrostratus or cirrus clouds). If the light comes sunlight, from the Sun (usually when it is near or even below the horizon), the phenomenon is called a sun pillar or solar pillar. Light pillars can also be caused moonlight, by the Moon or terrestrial sources, such as streetlights and erupting volcanoes. Formation Since they are caused by the interaction of light with ice crystals, light pillars belong to the family of halo (optical phenomenon), halos. The crystals responsible for light pillars usually consist of flat, Hexagonal crystal family, hexagonal plates, which tend to orient themselves more or less horizontally as th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ice Blink
Iceblink is a white light seen near the horizon, especially on the underside of low clouds, resulting from reflection of light off an ice field immediately beyond. The iceblink was used by both Inuit and explorers looking for the Northwest Passage to help them navigate safely as it indicates ice beyond the horizon. Its inverse phenomenon is water sky. The iceblink can be observed in both polar regions, being observed by Inuit in the Arctic and by many expeditions to Antarctica, including both the James Ross and Terra Nova expeditions. Iceblink has been misinterpreted by navigators as mountains. John Ross made this error when searching for the Northwest Passage in 1818. Whilst in the Lancaster Sound Lancaster Sound () is a body of water in the Qikiqtaaluk Region, Nunavut, Canada. It is located between Devon Island and Baffin Island, forming the eastern entrance to the Parry Channel and the Northwest Passage. East of the sound lies Baffin ..., he misidentified iceblink ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Opposition Effect
The opposition surge (sometimes known as the opposition effect, opposition spike or Seeliger effect) is the brightening of a rough surface, or an object with many particles, when illuminated from directly behind the observer. The term is most widely used in astronomy, where generally it refers to the sudden noticeable increase in the brightness of a celestial body such as a planet, moon, or comet as its phase angle of observation approaches zero. It is so named because the reflected light from the Moon and Mars appear significantly brighter than predicted by simple Lambertian reflectance when at astronomical opposition. Two physical mechanisms have been proposed for this observational phenomenon: shadow hiding and coherent backscatter. Overview The phase angle is defined as the angle between the observer, the observed object and the source of light. In the case of the Solar System, the light source is the Sun, and the observer is generally on Earth. At zero phase angle, the S ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Heiligenschein
(; ) is an optical phenomenon in which a bright spot appears around the shadow of the viewer's head in the presence of dew. In photogrammetry and remote sensing, it is more commonly known as the hotspot. It is also occasionally known as Cellini's halo after the Italian artist and writer Benvenuto Cellini (15001571), who described the phenomenon in his memoirs in 1562. Nearly spherical dew droplets act as lens (optics), lenses to focus the light onto the surface behind them. When this light light scattering, scatters or reflects off that surface, the same lens re-focuses that light into the direction from which it came. This configuration is similar to a cat's eye retroreflector. However a cat's eye retroreflector needs a refractive index of around 2, while water has a much smaller refractive index of approximately 1.33. This means that the water droplets focus the light about 20% to 50% of the diameter beyond the rear surface of the droplet. When dew droplets are suspended on tr ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Haze
Haze is traditionally an atmospheric phenomenon in which dust, smoke, and other dry particulates suspended in air obscure visibility and the clarity of the sky. The World Meteorological Organization manual of codes includes a classification of particulates causing horizontal obscuration into categories of fog, ice fog, steam fog, mist, haze, smoke, volcanic ash, dust, sand, and snow. Sources for particles that cause haze include farming ( stubble burning, ploughing in dry weather), traffic, industry, windy weather, volcanic activity and wildfires. Seen from afar (e.g. an approaching airplane) and depending on the direction of view with respect to the Sun, haze may appear brownish or bluish, while mist tends to be bluish grey instead. Whereas haze often is considered a phenomenon occurring in dry air, mist formation is a phenomenon in saturated, humid air. However, haze particles may act as condensation nuclei that leads to the subsequent vapor condensation and formatio ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sun Dog
A sun dog (or sundog) or mock sun, also called a parhelion (plural parhelia) in atmospheric science, is an atmospheric optical phenomenon that consists of a bright spot to one or both sides of the Sun. Two sun dogs often flank the Sun within a 22° halo. The sun dog is a member of the family of halos caused by the refraction of sunlight by ice crystals in the atmosphere. Sun dogs typically appear as a pair of subtly colored patches of light, around 22° to the left and right of the Sun, and at the same altitude above the horizon as the Sun. They can be seen anywhere in the world during any season, but are not always obvious or bright. Sun dogs are best seen and most conspicuous when the Sun is near the horizon. Formation and characteristics upA right-hand sun dog in Parry_arc.html" ;"title="Salem, Massachusetts. Also visible are a Parry arc">Salem, Massachusetts. Also visible are a Parry arc, an upper tangent arc, a 22° halo, and part of the parhelic circle. file:Dop ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
