Bizarre Triple Sun Spotted Over Chinese City

Science Wednesday, August 4th 2010 at 9:32 am By Robert Quigley ( ) Comments par·he·li·on (pär-hl-n, -hlyn) n. pl. par·he·li·a (-hl-, -hly) A bright spot sometimes appearing on either side of the sun, often on a luminous ring or halo. parhelion (pär-hl-n) Plural parhelia A white spot appearing at times in the parhelic circle. White parhelia are believed to form from light that is reflected off of atmospheric ice crystals; colored parhelia are believed to form from light that is refracted by atmospheric ice crystals. Multiple parhelia can often be seen simultaneously -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- On July 26th, the Chinese city of Leshan witnessed a phenomenon that’s puzzling experts and led one Chinese paper to ask this morning if it was a UFO: What appeared to be three suns in the sky at once. Assuming this didn’t come from a close encounter of the third kind or a three wolf moon passing through a double rainbow, what could it have been? The main explanation put forth by scientists is that the triple sun was the product of a ‘sun dog’ or parhelion, which Danwei describes as a “halo around the sun caused by refraction of sunlight through atmospheric ice crystals, often looks like three suns hanging in the sky.” But here’s the thing: Parhelia usually cause all of the suns to appear next to each other on one straight line; the triple sun formed a triangle. Thus, Chinese astronomers aren’t quite sure how to explain it. Related: Info about the recent coronal mass ejection Our armchair guess: Leshan is a region notorious for its pollution caused by unbridled urban growth, so much so that the famous Leshan Giant Buddha, more than a millenium old is getting covered in dirt and soot. That much junk in the sky could play many more tricks on our eyes than a few measly ice crystals. Three suns rose today in China BlueFlag | 01-09-2011 Digg Digg Three Suns appeared today in the city of Changchun, making the inhabitants of the city to look surprised at the celestial phenomenon. The news immediately published to the Chinese media and people began to take photographs of the phenomenon. There was not, however, something inexplicable, but rather a phenomenon similar to that of the rainbow. As explained by Zheng Liu Jilin head of the local weather center is essentially an optical refraction of the atmosphere. “The rainbow is a natural phenomenon that occurs for similar reasons. What happened in this case is that due to the relatively high clouds shown in the winter, clouds are formed by ice crystals, forming a reflector device. When the sun rises, the rays of light hit this refraction, resulting in the formation of the phenomenon” said a Chinese meteorologist. Lucky me, got this halo around the moon saturday evening, absolutely wonderful. I also believe there's a very faint "tangent arc" on top. But not sure. It appears when the image is manupulated in Photoshop. See some info here and here! In Icelandic the parhelia is called "aukasólir" or "Additional Suns", "Mock Suns" or "hjásólir" meaning "sidesuns" or "by-suns". The one to the left is called "wolf", and the one to right is "gíll" (means also wolf). There's a saying in Iceland that goes like "It predicts no good, unless the gíll [the wolf or the parhelia to the right] is followed by the second wolf [..the parhelia to the left].