Sun Dogs

Many years ago, the nature-essayist Hal Borland wrote in his book Sundial of the
Seasons that "Sun dogs and moon dogs are beautiful accents to a winter day or night
as the rainbow is to a showery Summer day." Sun dogs usually appear in pairs, and
are loyal to the sun (as moon dogs are loyal to the moon), sitting on each side of the
solar orb along a horizontal line through the solar disk. Sun dogs appear in January,
April, August, and October, the month does not really matter, but they are most
regularly seen close to their solar master during winter months when the sun is low in
the sky and ice crystals in the atmosphere are more common, but we can see them in
any of the other seasons whenever cirrus clouds fuzz the sky above.

Sun dogs on 22
o
halo flank South Pole sun
(photo courtesy of NOAA/US Dept of Commerce).
Sun dogs, or mock suns, are technically called solar parhelia (parhelia meaning "with
the sun") and appear as bright bursts of light formed when sunlight passes through ice
crystals at the proper angle. Usually, cirrus clouds in front of the sun produce sun
dogs, but other ice clouds, such as ice fog and diamond dust, may also generate them.
Sun dogs are sometimes so brilliant that dazzled observers mistake them for the sun.
They are often bright white but may show a partial spectrum of color with the red
wavelengths on the edge nearest the sun. Sun dogs often have comet-like appearance
with a bluish-white tail facing away from the sun.

Sun dogs are the second most frequent halo phenomena behind the 22
o
halo and often
accompany that halo. The difference between sun dog and halo formation is the
orientation of the ice crystals through which sunlight passes before reaching our eyes.
Halo formation requires a mixture of random ice crystal orientations in the sky. But if
the sky has only horizontally oriented, flat ice
crystals, we just see a sun dog.
Ice crystals in the atmosphere are hexagonally
shaped. Crystals forming most optical
phenomena in the air are typically hexagonal
rods, shaped like pencils, or flat, hexagonal
plate patterns, like microscopic stop signs or
dinner plates. When plate-shaped ice crystals
fall unimpaired, drag forces automatically orient
them horizontally so that their larger, flat
surface parallels the earth like a large maple leaf
drifting down from a tree.
Sun dogs emerge when sunlight passing through
the ice plate's thin sidefaces is refracted. The
more perfectly aligned the falling crystals are to
the horizontal, the more compact the resulting
sun dog. Crystal misalignment from true
horizontal will spread the sun dog vertically
its angular height being approximately four
times the maximum crystal angular tilt.
Sun dogs frequently display a reddish tint on the side facing the sun and may sport
bluish-white tails which stretch horizontally away from it. The degree to which
colours are visible depends on the amount of wobble in the ice crystal's fall: the more
wobble, the more colour. The sun dog's tail is formed by light passing through the
crystal at angles other than the optimal deviation angle.
Sun dogs typically appear when the sun is low to the horizon, usually just prior to
sunset or after sunrise, or during winter months at mid-latitudes. If the sun is low
(horizon to about 15
o
above it), each sun dog is separated from the sun by 22
o
(or
about two handsbreadth on extended arms), and both will lie on the circle of the
22
o
halo if one is present.
Sun dogs form tightest to the sun at lowest
solar altitudes, but they are never less than
22
o
from it. As the Sun climbs in the sky, the
sun dogs slowly move away from the
22
o
separation, although they remain on the
line through the sun parallel with the
horizon. When the sun has climbed to more
than 45
o
altitude, sun dogs are fainter and
noticeably off the 22
o
circle, and they vanish
altogether above 61
o
solar altitude.
Over two millennia ago, the Greeks
recognized that haloes and sun dogs foretold
rain. Today we known this is often a valid
prediction, because haloes and sun dogs are
produced by ice crystals that form the
cirroform clouds which make up the typical cloud sequence preceding a precipitating
warm front.
One last word. There are also moon dogs that appear alongside the moon and are
formed by lunar light passing through ice crystals.Moon dogs (or paraselenae) are
less commonly seen because the moon can only produce them when bright and
because they appear during the night when most of us are asleep.