The light that celestial bodies send us allows us to determine the location and movement of the planets, the Sun, the Moon and other bodies. We observe light phenomena in nature everywhere. The eyes help us, as well as special devices that make it possible to learn about the structure of celestial bodies, even those that are billions of kilometers from Earth. Observations with a telescope and photographing planets made it possible to study the cloud cover, rotation speed, and surface features.
The nature of the planet Earth gives us unique, rare, beautiful and incredible natural phenomena.
Varieties of Lighting Effects
Here are just a few of them:
Near-horizontal arc. It is also called the "fire rainbow." When light passes through the ice crystals of cirrus clouds, the sky is covered with colored stripes, and the sky seems to be covered with a “rainbow film”. Such light phenomena are very rare, since a natural phenomenon occurs only when ice crystals and sun rays are at a certain angle with respect to each other.
Rainbow clouds. This effect also depends on how the Sun is located to the droplets of water from the clouds. The color is determined by the different lengths of light waves.
"The Ghost of Brocken." Amazing light phenomena are observed in some areas of our planet: if the sun sets or rises behind a person standing on a hill or mountain, he may find that his shadow, which falls on the clouds, increases to implausible sizes. This is due to the refraction of sunlight by the smallest drops of fog. This effect is regularly observed at the top of Brocken in Germany.
Halo. Sometimes white circles appear around the moon and the sun. This occurs as a result of the reflection or refraction of light by crystals of snow or ice. In frosty weather, halo, which are formed by crystals of snow and ice on the ground, reflect light and scatter it in different directions, resulting in the formation of an effect called "diamond dust".
Parhelion. The word pargelium means false sun. It is a kind of halo: in the sky there are several additional Suns located at a level with the present.
Everyone knows such an atmospheric phenomenon as a rainbow, which occurs after rain - the most beautiful atmospheric phenomenon.
Northern Lights. Similar light phenomena are observed in the polar regions. It is assumed that the same phenomenon exists in the atmosphere of other planets, Venus, for example. Scientists believe that auroras arise as a result of the bombardment of the upper atmospheric layer by charged particles, which move toward the Earth parallel to the lines of force of the geomagnetic field from outer space, called the plasma layer.
Polarization is the orientation in space of electromagnetic oscillations of light waves. This phenomenon occurs when light hits the surface at a certain angle and, when reflected, becomes polarized. Such a sky can be seen with a camera filter.
Star trail. The phenomenon can be captured with a camera, and with the naked eye it is impossible to do.
The crown around the Sun is small colored crowns around a given planet or bright objects. They are occasionally observed when light sources are hidden behind translucent clouds, and occurs when light rays are scattered by small water droplets forming a cloud.
A mirage is this optical effect, which is caused by the refraction of light rays when passing through layers of air with different densities. It is expressed by the appearance of a fraudulent image. Mirages are most often observed in hot climates, mainly in deserts. Sometimes they display entire objects that are located at a great distance from the observer.
Pillars of light. These are such light phenomena when light is reflected from ice crystals, and vertical luminous columns are formed, as if coming from the surface of the earth. The source in this case is the moon, the sun or artificial lights.