Sun Pillars: A visual phenomenon created by the reflection of light from ice crystals with near horizontal parallel planar surface. aka... pillars of light created by the sun reflecting off ice crystals near the horizon. Other phenomenon like sun pillars: Sun Dogs and Halos around the sun... These are most common in the winter in the Midwest. The usual cause is due to cirrus clouds (really high clouds composed of ice crystals... they look like wispy horse tails). A less common cause, and what I experienced today was due to a phenomenon called diamond dust. (diamond dust is little ice particles floating around in the air and light reflects off of them causing a rainbow effect.)
Seeing the sun pillars was a cool thing for me... they aren't exactly a rainbow but man are they cool. They do have the rainbow aspect to them. There is always a little glimmer of the ROYGBIV in any optics... due to the visual spectrum of color that is going through the tiny particles whether they are ice or water. The ice particles act like a prism. In a prism the light is refracted (split up) into the spectral colors of the rainbow. This is why we see the rainbow colors associated with the sun pillars or sun dogs. It is also the same reason we see the colors of the rainbow after a storm. That is due to raindrops, same affects though.
Story Time!!
It is pretty amazing the things a person experiences before 8am in the morning. Me, not being a morning person, never really wanted to see things in the morning that happen around sunrise. It is too early for me. Now that I have an 8 to 5 job though... well I'm kind of forced to. The past two days, seeing these things have been exciting for me!
This morning it wasn't the lovely snow that surprised me, it was the optical phenomena of the sun pillars. The mix of the breezy conditions and the fresh fluffy snow/ice created the perfect conditions this morning. I have NEVER experienced sun pillars. We talked about them a little in Meteorology 110 but we didn't spend much time on them. I've always been intrigued by the tricks that the sun plays in the sky. The biggest reason it intrigued me is due to my faith. I've always liked the story of Noah, especially the end of the story where god puts a rainbow in the sky to signify that he will never harm the world/his people in that way again as long as we stick to his plan. So when ever I see a rainbow of sorts I feel like it's god saying, "Hello Erin, I promise that I will protect you." Kinda special huh?
On the drive to work today I decided to take a bunch of pictures of these Sun Pillars and thought it would be a good weather teaching moment in my blog. Another thing that I thought was so strange was the fact that when I got to work and the building was blocking all but the very top of the sun pillars, but some how I was still able to see the rainbow of color stream into the court yard. It was sweet because I could see the tiny little diamond dust particles floating in the air all shinning a different color. It was almost like some sort of creature you would see in Narnia or Harry Potter (both which I madly and deeply love). Those are both topics for another day!
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