This and that- in the sky!

I wanted to share with you some sites that talk about atmospheric optics: rainbows, fogbows, moonbows, sundogs and all sorts of other cool phenomenon that occur when you see light and color in the atmosphere. Here’s a hint: anytime you see a thin layer of clouds in the sky around the sun (or moon), find something to obscure the sun like a basketball backboard and take a look at the clouds. Sometimes you will see iridescence (rainbow of colors), sometimes you can see a complete halo around the sun with arcs (half circles) radiating from the edges, sometimes you will see a sundog or two (bright spots in the clouds, next to the sun that kind of look like the sun). People are passionate about these phenomena, and I can see why. They are very special.

Earth Science Photo of the Day often has photos of atmospheric optics.

This web page, Atmospheric Optics Effects, has a listing of all sorts of web pages for atmospheric optics. I visited one site, a blog Atmospheric Phenomenon with nice photos of all sorts of effects.

And then there is this site, Weatherscape: Atmospheric Optics, that provides a comprehensive guide to atmospheric optics, just click on each term to get examples. This is a good place to start.