The top ten meteorological wonders in the world (pictures)
The famous American naturalist Tim Holder recently published a new book called "The Brilliant Sky", which reveals some rare and strange natural scenes in the sky. These bizarre phenomena include solar halos, mirages, and solar winds.
1. Extremely rare fire rainbow
The flat rainbow in the picture is the so-called fire rainbow, also known as the "horizontal arc". The "horizontal arc" is an extremely rare optical phenomenon that occurs only when the sun's rays are at an angle of 58 degrees to the horizon. It is also called a fire rainbow because it looks like a rainbow spontaneously burning across the sky. Fire rainbows are not as easy to see as ordinary rainbows, mainly because the conditions are so difficult to meet. First, the sun must be at an angle of 58 degrees to the horizon, and the sky you are observing must be at an altitude of 20,000 feet (about 6,100 meters). There are cirrus clouds. 2. Strange mirage landscape
Mirages don’t just appear in the desert. When light passes through the air, if there is a sharp change in temperature that causes uneven air density, it may cause light refraction, resulting in a mirage phenomenon. This picture is what is called a "superior mirage". The ship looks much taller than it actually is. Typically, many "superior mirages" also include their reflections. Mirages can not only occur at sea and in deserts, but can also occasionally be seen on asphalt roads. Mirage is the result of refraction of light in air layers with different densities in the vertical direction. Since ancient times, mirages have attracted the attention of the world. In ancient mythology, mirages were portrayed as the incarnation of the devil and a bad omen of death and misfortune. 3. A rare 22-degree solar halo
This is a photo of a 22-degree solar halo appearing in the Finnish sky. A tall chimney in the background points directly to the center of the solar halo. This is the so-called "outer halo", where the outer rings completely overlap. Solar halos occur frequently, even more frequently than rainbows, but they are usually invisible to the naked eye due to the strong sunlight. 4. Two suns fall at the same time
Due to the refraction of light at sunset, the sun on the horizon often appears larger or even becomes oval. This photo of a sunset over the Pacific Ocean is the best embodiment of this visual effect. Severe refraction "flattens" the top of the sun, and the reflection below the sun is the so-called "inferior mirage." This is the most common mirage scene, which can often be seen on the highway in hot summer.
5. Rare red aurora
The solar wind composed of basic particles such as protons and electrons continues to blow towards the earth. But luckily, most of the solar wind's particles are rejected by Earth's magnetosphere. However, in the earth's polar regions, there are still some solar particles that break into the atmosphere, thus forming the aurora phenomenon. The most common color of auroras is green. But due to the high ionization of oxygen over Alaska, this rare red aurora is formed. Auroras have been the subject of speculation and exploration for centuries. In the past, Eskimos believed that the aurora was a torch used by ghosts and gods to guide the souls of the dead to heaven. In the 13th century, people thought it was the light reflected from the Greenland ice sheet. It was not until the 17th century that people officially called it aurora.
6. Lightning over Arizona
We should still remember a piece of natural common sense in elementary school textbooks: If the negative charges at the bottom of the clouds continue to accumulate, the positive charges on the ground will also continue to accumulate. When the voltage between the two exceeds the insulation capacity of the air, lightning will occur. This long streak of lightning occurred over the Silver Bell Mountains in Arizona. Among all kinds of lightning, the rarest is bead lightning, which most people in the world have never seen. This lightning is shaped like a string of glowing pearls extending from the clouds to the ground. Since the occurrence of bead lightning is very rare and the duration is very short, the cause of this kind of lightning has been rarely studied, and the reason for its formation is still unclear.
7. Sunlight is scattered by water droplets to form a colorful halo
The corona usually refers to the outermost layer of the solar atmosphere. The halo can only be seen during a solar eclipse. . When sunlight passes through small water droplets in the rainforest, it is scattered into different wavebands and forms the colorful halo shown in the photo. Rainbows are formed when sunlight hits small, nearly round water droplets in the sky, causing dispersion and reflection. When sunlight hits a water droplet, it will be incident at different angles at the same time, and will also be reflected at different angles within the water droplet. Among them, the reflection between 40 and 42 degrees is the strongest, causing the rainbow we see. In fact, as long as there are water droplets in the air and sunlight is shining behind the observer at a low angle, an observable rainbow phenomenon may occur.
The dewdrops on the spider web form a "dew rainbow". When there are many small water droplets floating in the humid air, a rainbow is formed when light passes through. Standard rainbows are not uncommon. But if the angle of the sun's rays is low and the small water droplets adhere to a specific surface, a special rainbow phenomenon will also appear, which is the so-called "dew rainbow". For example, dew on spider webs will form a so-called "dew rainbow". The surfaces of grass, wild flowers and other plants provide a good platform for the formation of "dew rainbow".
9. The strange landscape of dyed mountain clouds
Sometimes the light on the top of the mountain seems to be slightly pink, even when the sun is about to set or sinks below the horizon. , this is the so-called "stained mountain clouds" phenomenon.
The phenomenon of "stained mountain clouds" is caused by the refraction of sunlight rays by snow on mountains or water droplets and ice particles in the atmosphere.
10. Ice crystals refract sunlight to form a solar halo
This is a photo of a solar halo formed by ice crystals in clouds in the sky refracting sunlight. The ice crystals are like prisms that refract sunlight at an angle of no less than 22 degrees, thus forming the 22-degree halo seen in the picture. The inner regions of the halo ring appear slightly dimmer because the sun's rays are refracted. The cause of the formation of the solar halo is the appearance of cirrostratus clouds composed of ice crystals at an altitude of 5,000 meters. The ice crystals in cirrostratus clouds undergo physical changes such as refraction and reflection after being irradiated by the sun. The sunlight is decomposed into red, yellow, green, purple and other colors, so that a huge colorful halo appears around the sun, called a halo. . The appearance of a solar halo often indicates certain changes in the weather.