Thank You to The Bigger PIcture 2012

Many in Huntsville, Alabama witnessed this spectacular vision on October 30th.

AMAZING ICE HALO DISPLAY: Yesterday, sky watchers around the Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, witnessed something amazing: A complex network of luminous arcs and rings surrounded the afternoon sun. “I’ve never seen anything quite like it,” says eyewitness Bill Cooke, head of NASA’s Meteoroid Environment Office. Solar physicist David Hathaway snapped this picture of the display. (Image credit and copyright: David Hathaway/NASA/MSFC)

The apparition is almost certainly connected to hurricane Sandy. The core of the storm swept well north of Alabama, but Sandy’s outer bands did pass over the area, leaving behind a thin haze of ice crystals in cirrus clouds. Sunlight shining through the crystals produced an unusually rich variety of ice halos.

“By my count, there are two sun dogs, a 22^o halo, a parahelic circle, an upper tangent arc, and a parry arc,” says Chris Brightwell, who also photographed the display. “It was amazing.”

“Very impressive,” agreed onlooker Kyle Winkleman. “This was a once-in-a-decade event for our area.”