Rainbow Halo Around Sun

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Rainbow Around the Sun in Medan!

This is an amazing phenomenon that happened in Medan today right about 12 noon to about 1 pm. Everyone called or sms their friends and family members to look up into the bright blue sky of Medan to see this “Rainbow Halo around the Sun” also known as a “Sun Dog” by meteorologist.

And you can see everyone reaching out for the camera phone and point it to the sky to take this amazing sight of a perfect circle of rainbow around the sun. So we took out ours too just to show you here.

We took this picture from Sushi Tei Medan as you can see the signage of the restaurant in the picture and the date 22 Sep 2008 12.44pm

Rainbows after rain are very common but seeing this ranbow-like halo around the sun is very rare. It is actually the same physics in play here. The halos usually appeared when there are high clouds overhead. These Clouds are made of tiny ice crystals which refract the sunlight.

There was no rain today although it did rained heavily last night causing storms and several districts out of electricity when several “trafo” from the PLN exploded.

This photo is taken from our car to show you a better picture. It was difficult to take a full circle of the halo effect as it is really HUGE and prominent above the sky. As it is noon time, the Sun Dog is right above with a bright sun shining down.

Halos are also  optical phenomena that appear near or around the  Sun or  Moon, and sometimes near other strong light sources such as street lights. There are many types of optical halos, but they are mostly caused by  ice crystals in cold  cirrus clouds located high (5-10 km, or 3-6 miles) in the upper  troposphere. The particular shape and orientation of the crystals is responsible for the type of halo observed.  Light is  reflected and  refracted by the  ice crystals and may split up into  colours because of  dispersion, similarly to the  rainbow.

We did wonder if this phenomenon was only viewable around Medan? or further… ? If anyone has any information please feel free to share them in the comments below.

More pictures of the Sun Dog - Halo Matahari in Medan

taken much further away to show you the perfect circle of Rainbow:

Ok, this picture here below should proof that this phenomenon is really in MEDAN with Rainbow Halo in te sky overlooking the water tower of Tirtanadi of Medan by Harian Analisa Medan

Another good picture taken at noon ( sun is larger and brighter ) But dont be mistaken, the black lines blocking the view are electrical lines commonly seen in hanging from house to house in Medan