photo #9222795

This Cirrostratus, home to a stack of halo phenomena, was spotted after sunrise by Suzanne Martucci (Cloud Appreciation Society Member 65,264) over Baltimore, Maryland, US. Halo phenomena are arcs and spots of light that can appear as sunlight interacts with prism-like ice crystals in the atmosphere. The particular ones that appear depend on the shape and orientation of the tiny ice crystals in the cloud and their position in the sky relative to the Sun. The different arcs all have names. In Suzanne’s morning spotting were, from top to bottom, a circumzenithal arc, a supralateral arc, a suncave Parry arc (barely visible), an upper tangent arc, and part of a 22-degree halo. In other words, worth getting out of bed for.