Solar halo appears over Ordos

A solar halo appeared in the sky over Dalad Banner, Ordos on June 27, attracting local people to come and photograph the spectacle. Images of the phenomenon were quickly circulating on social media.

Halo is the name for a family of optical phenomena produced by light interacting with ice crystals suspended in the atmosphere. Halos can have many forms, ranging from colored or white rings to arcs and spots in the sky. Many of these are near the Sun or Moon, but others occur elsewhere or even in the opposite part of the sky.

Among the best known halo types are the circular halo (properly called the 22° halo), light pillars and sun dogs, but there are many more; some of them are fairly common, others are extremely rare.

There is an old proverb in China, “Solar halos bring in rainfalls in midnight, while lunar halos come with winds at noontime,” indicating the weather changes when halos appear in the sky.

A solar halo photographed in Dalad Banner, Ordos, Inner Mongolia autonomous region on June 27, 2017. [Photo/northnews.cn]