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From time to time you might find yourself looking up at the Sky and seeing things that make you stop and wonder. One such thing is a phenomenon called Sun Dog or Parhelion. You could call it an optical illusion but it is not just any optical illusion. It is actually an event that occurs due to the interaction of sunlight with hexagonal ice crystals found high in the atmosphere. The hexagonal ice crystals are small prisms which bend the light rays approximately 22° away from the Sun creating that bright patches on both sides of the Sun, which usually has small bands of rainbow colours.
Sun Dogs are seen best when the Sun is at a low point on the horizon and on cold days. The whole display can look like a ghostly apparition and while I find it really interesting, they are simply an example of physics at work. I wish I knew about this when I was in senior high, would have used that to waste my physics lecturer's time, trying to explain till the class ends.
The bright patches are actually components of a larger 22° halo surrounding the Sun, but the patches are the most noticeable feature of the halo.
On snowy days they can be visually very cool, just like the video I shared above, it's enough to let people stop and watch. It's obvious why Sun Dogs capture people's attention so much, you would easily think you made a discovery of a second sun and we should be woke.
But anyways, they certainly show us how something as common as glowing ice creates a thing of beauty without trying. You should know that, Sun Dogs only occur under certain atmospheric conditions. Specifically, high cirrus clouds with the right type of crystals must be present for Sun Dogs to form. Not every cold day will create the Sun Dogs illusion, but when they do, it is worth stopping for a moment to look up at the sky.
