Bright side of lockdown! Sun Halo appears over skies of Koraput [Watch]

Jeypore: Have you ever seen a ghostly rainbow halo – a ring – around the Sun? A very rare sight has been spotted in the sky of Damanjodi area in Koraput district today.

Amid coronavirus scare and restrictions of lockdown, the residents of the locality enjoyed the circular halo around the Sun that lasted for only 10 minutes in the sky. At the same time, they feared for a suspected climate change in upcoming days.

However, astronomy experts ruled out people’s assumption.

Dr. Subhendu Pattnaik, Deputy Director of Pathani Samanta Planetarium, Bhubaneswar, termed halo as an ‘optical illusion’.

“It is not a rare occurrence in the sky. Halo is an optical phenomenon produced by light interacting with ice crystals suspended in the atmosphere. The halo around Sun is caused by the reflection and dispersion of light through ice particles suspended within thin clouds. As Sunlight passes through the six-arm-shaped ice crystals, it is bent, creating a circular halo around the Sun,” Patnaik said.

The prism effect of light passing through these six-sided ice crystals also separates the light into its various color frequencies, making the halo look like a very pale rainbow, he said adding that halo also occurs around the Moon.

Though Sun halos can predict the weather, this is no way related to any kind of climate change, Patnaik said.

The chances become high to witness rainfall in one or two days after occurrence of halo in the sky.

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