large bright sundog + weird subsun

[Michiel de Boer]

Hi,

I looked up in the sky, and thought: That cloud is extremely bright! The sky was allready bright so my camera had difficulties not to overexposure it. Here are 3 photo's of to me unusual sundogs because of the cloud design they appear in (doesn't look like ice cristals) and the size of it. 3rd one is in another kind of cloud and has a large "tail". It appeared in both clouds at the same time.
Date of first pic: 11-9-2003, 17:34

The 4th photo is something I haven't seen before, it was more than 45 degrees away from the sun. I did a little gamma correction on this photo.
Date: 16-8-2003, 18:07 (Same day as I photographed that Very bright tangent arc + parhelic circle). What's this kind of subsun? The cloud by the way, was originally a contrail.

[Michael Ellestad]

Michiel,

That bright patch of white light you see on the parhelic circle is a type of parhelion and it is called a 120 degree parhelion and it is formed by the same crystals that form the standard sundogs.

A subsun on the other hand it forms below the sun and is below the horizon, look for a subsun when ever halo forming crystals are in the air when very cold and look for it when you are in an airplane.

Best,
Michael