Strange Skies
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Cloud Grey

Gigantic and unique 'divergent eddy' appears in the sky above Antwerp, Belgium

Bahar Azizi
Sott.net
Thu, 24 May 2018 21:35 UTC
divergent eddy
© Facebook Weerstation Zoersel & omstreken
In the north of the Belgian province of Antwerp, clouds turned into one great swirl on the evening of Tuesday May 22nd. Many residents of the municipality Schilde and its surrounding area were amazed on seeing the bizarre weather phenomenon in the sky.

It was Facebook page Weerstation Zoersel & omstreken that received pictures of the phenomenon and published them online. Excited about the sight in the sky, Belgian weather caster Jill Peeters tweeted: "I'm going for a walk - without a phone - and I keep seeing a motionless, gigantic swirl in the clouds. Thankfully, you all, such as in Zoersel and Antwerp, are taking pictures of it."
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Rainbow

Elusive anti-solar arc captured on film during take off in Sweden


Space Weather
Mon, 21 May 2018 18:35 UTC
antisolar arc 2018
© Pål Tengesdal
On May 21st, Pål Tengesdal boarded a plane at the Gardermoen Oslo Airport in Norway and took off. Minutes later he saw something strange out the window. "There was a bright luminous «X» in the clouds," he says. "I photographed it using my iPhone 7."

"The phenomenon was visible for less than 2 minutes," says Tengesdal. "As we moved out of the clouds it faded away."

Tengesdal witnessed a rare type of ice halo called "anti-solar region arcs." To see them, you have to stare directly away from the sun, looking down into icy clouds where subhorizon reflections from the faces of ice crystals create these strange arcs.

Comment: Indeed! Just what is happening in the skies that these 'rare' sights are occurring with such increasing frequency? For more information of the causes, check out SOTT radio's: Behind the Headlines: Earth changes in an electric universe: Is climate change really man-made? as well as Pierre Lescaudron and Laura Knight-Jadczyk's book Earth Changes and the Human-Cosmic Connection.

And check out SOTT's monthly documentary: SOTT Earth Changes Summary - April 2018: Extreme Weather, Planetary Upheaval, Meteor Fireballs

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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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