Question

What are sun dogs and what do they mean?

Answer 1

Sun dogs are splotches of light on one or both sides of the sun, sometimes with the colors of the rainbow. Other names are false suns or mock suns. A more scientific name is parhelia. They are usually seen at a 22-degree angle to the sun. Cirrus clouds, which are made of ice crystals, are generally in the sky to create sun dogs.

Answer 2

A sundog, also known as sun dog, mock sun or parhelion, consists of glowing spots around the sun. They are created by sunlight refracting off plate-shaped ice crystals in the cirrus clouds. Sundogs are some of the most frequently observed optical phenomena and can be observed throughout the year and anywhere in the world.

Answer 3

Sundogs are colored spots of light that develop due to the refraction of light through ice crystals. They are located approximately 22 degrees either left, right, or both, from the sun, depending on where the ice crystals are present. The colors usually go from red closest to the sun, out to blue on the outside of the sundog.

Answer 4

As the crystals sink vertically through the air, they refract the sun rays horizontally, leading to the formation of sun dogs. Sun rays enter one side of the crystal and pass through another, inclined at 60 degrees to the first. Rays are deviated by 22? or more. Red is the less deviated color, giving the sun dogs a red inner edge.

Answer 5

A sun dog or sundog(scientific name parhelion, plural parhelia, e.g. "with the sun") is a relatively common halo, an atmospheric optical phenomenon mostly associated with the refraction of sunlight by small ice crystals making up cirrus or cirrostratus clouds.

Answer 6

A sun dog (or sundog) or mock sun, also called a parhelion (plural parhelia) in meteorology, is an atmospheric optical phenomenon that consists of a bright spot to one or both sides of the Sun. Two sun dogs often flank the Sun within a 22? halo .

Answer 7

A sundog is a concentrated patch of sunlight occasionally seen about 22? to the left or right of the Sun. Sundogs often form in pairs on either side of our daytime star when sunlight refracts through icy clouds containing hexagonal platecrystals aligned with their large, flat faces parallel to the ground.

Answer 8

Sun dog, also called mock sun or parhelion, atmospheric optical phenomenon appearing in the sky as luminous spots 22? on each side of the Sun and at the same elevation as the Sun. Usually, the edges closest to the Sun will appear reddish.

Answer 9

Sun dogs are sometimes accompanied by a halo around the sun. Sun dogs are an atmospheric phenomenon caused by the refraction of sunlight through ice crystals such as those hosted in cirrus clouds. A number of specific conditions must prevail for this phenomenon to form. Many observers miss them because they form close to the sun, requiring the ...

Answer 10

A sundog is similar to a rainbow, and more common than rainbows. Sometimes they look like bright rainbows on either side of the Sun. Other times they are brighter and actually look like two extra Suns. Sundogs are also known as mock suns or parhelia, which means with the Sun.