High Tatras Halo Display
February 20, 2023
Photographer: Viktor Belicak
Summary Authors: Viktor Belicak; Jim Foster
Featured above is a panorama of an attention-getting halo display I captured from the village of Zdiar in the very eastern part of the High Tatras Mountains of Slovakia. It was taken just after sunrise on December 18, 2022. The morning air was bitter cold -- temperature about 0 degrees F (-18 C). Sunlight shining through ice crystals suspended in the air, within 100 m or so of the surface, created this atmospheric wonder.
Easily visible here are the 22-degree halo, parhelia (sundogs) and upper tangent arc (at top of 22-degree halo). Other arcs were visible as the Sun rose higher. Displays such as this can on occasion be observed at ski resorts when snow making equipment is used to augment the natural snowpack. However, high winds lifting ice crystals from the surface into the air or crystals free-falling through the lower atmosphere may also result in these displays.
Photo details: Panorama made of 6 photos; ISO 100; 18mm; f 8; 1/400 second exposure.
Zdiar, High Tatras, Slovakia Coordinates: 49.2713, 20.2734
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