{"id":24304,"date":"2024-06-19T11:43:13","date_gmt":"2024-06-19T06:13:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/?p=24304"},"modified":"2025-10-13T11:29:41","modified_gmt":"2025-10-13T05:59:41","slug":"double-sun-halo","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/double-sun-halo\/","title":{"rendered":"What is Double Sun halo?"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2>About Double Sun halo:\u00a0<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>It is a <strong>rare optical phenomenon<\/strong> where two concentric rings appear around the sun.<\/li>\n<li>This occurs when sunlight is refracted through ice crystals suspended in cirrus clouds, creating this dazzling visual effect.<\/li>\n<li>It is a variation of the more common 22-degree halo, where a bright ring encircles the sun.\u00a0<\/li>\n<li>In this case, two halos are visible &#8211; an inner halo with a radius of approximately 22 degrees and an outer halo with a radius of around 46 degrees from the sun&#8217;s center.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Formation:<\/strong>\n<ul>\n<li>The formation of a double sun halo is a result of the unique shape and orientation of the ice <strong>crystals in the cirrus clouds<\/strong>. These crystals, typically hexagonal in shape<strong>, act as natural prisms<\/strong>, <strong>refracting and reflecting<\/strong> the sunlight in specific angles.<\/li>\n<li>When the ice crystals are randomly oriented, the refracted sunlight creates the <strong>inner 22-degree halo<\/strong>. However, if the crystals are aligned horizontally, with their flat faces parallel to the ground, an additional refraction occurs, resulting in the outer 46-degree halo.<\/li>\n<li>This precise alignment of the ice crystals is rare, making the double sun halo a relatively uncommon sight, especially in regions like Ladakh, where the atmospheric conditions are ideal for such phenomena.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<hr \/>\n<h3>Q1: What are Cirrus Clouds?<\/h3>\n<p>Cirrus Clouds are delicate, feathery clouds that are made mostly of ice crystals. They are thin and wispy in appearance, often appearing as delicate, high-altitude filaments or strands.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Source: <\/strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.indiatoday.in\/science\/story\/rare-double-sun-halo-seen-in-leh-what-is-this-rare-phenomenon-2554602-2024-06-18\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Rare double Sun halo seen in Leh: What is this rare phenomenon?<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Double Sun halo is a rare optical phenomenon where two concentric rings appear around the sun.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":24305,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-24304","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-upsc-prelims-current-affairs","8":"no-featured-image-padding"},"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24304","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24304"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24304\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/24305"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24304"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24304"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24304"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}