toptics
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Highlights
Light Pillars with a difference
Imaged in Sollefteå, Sweden by Janne Nordin.
Unlike most light pillars whose glints form a vertical line, these are trumpet shaped. Horizontal light circles radiate from each lamp. Curving upwards from the nearest light is a hint of a superparhelion.
Image ©Janne Nordin, shown with permission
The surface between lamp and eye marks where rays from horizontal column crystals deflect the minimum deviation angle of 22°.
Superparhelion ray path
The trumpets are a divergent light form of the familiar upper tangent arc atop a 22° halo. Glints from horizontal column diamond dust crystals in the nearby air form them. Only those near the complex green and blue caustic surface glint lamplight towards the eye. More about them here..
The horizontal streaks are the divergent light form of the parhelic circle. Light reflected from the near vertical end faces of column crystals form them. Plate crystals might also weight in.
The faint parabolic superparhelion is another divergent light halo, this time from plate crystals. More here....
