Strange Skies
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Sun

Sun dog phenomenon seen in Derbyshire, UK

Ben Lyons
Derby Telegraph
Mon, 21 May 2018 19:58 UTC
Sun dogs over Derbyshire
© YouTube/Spooky Nook Creative
The rare solar phenomenon of sun dogs were spotted in the Derbyshire sky this weekend.

People were amazed to see the weather phenomenon, which can also be called mock suns, with the official title being a parhelion.

Sun dogs are formed by two bright spots appearing either side of the sun, creating the illusion of three suns in the sky.

The phenomenon is caused by ice crystals in the upper atmosphere.

Sun dogs were spotted in Winshill, East Staffordshire on Friday, May 18 at 7.10pm.

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Camera

'Rare' sun halo spotted over Philippines

M G Martin
Philippines Lifestyle News
Wed, 16 May 2018 20:58 UTC
Sun halo over the Philippines
© Rey Tubo
Residents of a Bohol town were treated to a rare celestial phenomenon when the sun appeared surrounded by a halo of light.

The rare sight was reported in Ubay town today (Wednesday, May 16).

Local government worker Rey Tubo spotted the sight, and posted a number of photographs on his Facebook account. He wrote: "That's what God is. Wonders man."

Engineer Riche Cutamora Ibale also uploaded a photo and captioned it with a succinct scientific explanation: "Called as 22 degree halo or a sun halo, the ring is caused by sunlight passing through ice crystals in cirrus clouds within the earth's atmosphere."
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Sun

Amazing 'sun dog' phenomenon seen in the sky above Cambridge, UK

Adam Care and Samar Maguire
Cambridge News
Tue, 15 May 2018 20:31 UTC
Sun dog over Cambridge, UK
© Howard Moshtael
This is the moment a rare 'mock sun' appeared in the sky above one of Cambridge's best-known landmarks.

These pictures, taken today on Parker's Piece, show a 'sun dog', a rare solar event in which a second sun appears alongside our Sun.

It was spotted by Dr Howard Moshtael, 30, who is a science teacher at Hills Road Sixth Form and North Cambridge Academy.

He said: "I was just chilling with my friend after playing football in Parker's Piece before I looked up and beheld a little section of rainbow to the left of the sun and realised it was a sun dog.
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Blackbox

Strange sounds and lights in the sky all over the world

XtremeRealityCheck
YouTube
Fri, 11 May 2018 13:19 UTC
strange lights sounds

Mystery booms, skyquakes, Strange sounds in sky, earthquake lights aurora borealis magnetic rainbow effect, strange animal wildlife behavior, volcanic eruptions, New Madrid fault line 1812 mega quake.... warning signs? Should we learn from history?
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Sun

Striking sun halo seen over eastern Florida

David Heckard
News13
Thu, 10 May 2018 14:34 UTC
Sun halo over FL
© Miguel Angel
Many people took notice of a large, dramatic ring around the sun Thursday afternoon and asked us, "What is it?"

This "ring" is called a sun halo, and it's an atmospheric phenomenon not seen in Florida that often.

The sun halo was caused by clouds that were increasing very high up in the atmosphere. These clouds, called cirrus clouds, contain ice instead of water.

Ice crystals reflect light better than water droplets -- think of a prism in the sky. The ice crystals reflected the light from the sun in a full circle down to the surface, creating the sun halo.
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Cassiopaea

Rare red air glow photographed over Atacama desert, Chile


Space Weather
Sat, 12 May 2018 10:09 UTC
red air glow atacama
© https://www.instagram.com/yuribeletsky/
When the sun goes down, Chile's Atacama desert can be one of the darkest places on Earth. Last night, it was not. "I couldn't believe what I saw on the screen of my camera when I took the first image," reports photographer Yuri Beletsky, who recorded luminous bands of red rippling across the sky:

"The airglow was absolutely insane!" he says. "Parts of the Milky Way were barely visible because of the intense red glow."

Airglow is caused by a complex assortment of chemical reactions in the upper atmosphere. These reactions get started during daylight hours when the atmosphere is bathed in strong ultraviolet radiation from the sun. After sunset, the afterglow appears--usually green, but sometimes red. Beletsky is a veteran photographer of airglow, having captured it dozens of times from sites in Chile and the South Pacific. "The intensity of airglow varies, and sometimes it can be more prominent," he notes.

Comment: Unusual atmospheric activity is on the increase with the exact drivers yet to be determined. One thing is for sure, in line with the phenomena witnessed above: are the events occurring on below:

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Sun

Rare solar show lights up the skies over Aomori Prefecture in Japan

Yoshinori Doi
The Asahi Shimbun
Tue, 08 May 2018 14:40 UTC
Halo over Japan
© Takuto Usuda
Photos of a rare dual atmospheric phenomenon that produced a ring of light around the sun along with a horizontal rainbow in the skies over the prefecture at around noon on May 7 went viral on Twitter.

"It made me feel so lucky because it's rare to see such a phenomenon," said Takuto Usuda, 21, a fourth-year student at Hirosaki University, who posted photos to Twitter of the colorful spectacle.

It is extremely rare for an horizontal rainbow, known as a circumhorizon arc, and a sun halo, when a circle of light forms around the sun, to be seen in the sky at the same time, according to the Aomori Meteorological Observatory.
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Rainbow

Stunning 'fire rainbow' appears in Kentucky sky

Linda Lam
Weather Underground
Tue, 08 May 2018 17:49 UTC
An unusual but spectacular sight, known as a fire rainbow, was spotted near Hazard, Kentucky, on Sunday.
Circumhorizontal arc
© Michael Herald
This phenomenon, which resembles a piece of a brightly colored rainbow, is also known as a circumhorizontal arc.

The name fire rainbow comes from its bright rainbow colors and almost flame-like shape.

Unlike rainbows, circumhorizontal arcs occur from the refraction of sunlight through hexagonal, plate-shaped ice crystals when the sun is 58 degrees above the horizon and no rainfall is involved. Sunlight enters these ice crystals and splits into individual colors, like a prism.
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Camera

Circumhorizontal arc spotted over northern Alabama

Gabrielle Deabler
WHNT
Tue, 08 May 2018 15:57 UTC
Circumhorizon arc over Alabama
We receive a lot of great photos from our viewers, including pictures of cool phenomena like the circumhorizon arc sent in to us Tuesday afternoon by Willis Brannon!

The circumhorizon arc looks like an upside down rainbow, but it's formed differently. Rainbows occur when light is refracted by water droplets, usually just after rain. Circumhorizon arcs however are one of many halos that can be formed by light's interaction with ice crystals.

Ice crystals are found high in the sky and can refract light into a variety of halos and shapes depending on where the sun is in the sky relative to the ice crystals and what kind of crystals are present. To form a circumhorizon arc the light is refracted by plate crystals oriented so that the light can enter through the plate's side.
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Newspaper

Ghostly mirage appears above sea in East China


Sputnik
Thu, 10 May 2018 10:48 UTC
ghostly mirage
© YouTube/CGTN
Watch a video of a rare optical phenomenon that can be seen near the sea, as well as in desert and polar regions, and usually reminds people of ghostly castles and buildings.

Ghostly mirages that looked like a block of apartments appeared near a beach in Qingdao, east China. The mirages were visible for two hours and only a few people managed to capture them on camera.
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