The Incredible Sun Pillar, 2004/1/29

[Dave Mitsky]

As I drove westward towards Harrisburg on Thursday evening at approximately 5:10 p.m. EST (22:10 UT) I witnessed a fantastic sun pillar, the likes of which I had never before seen. The sun was just a red glow hugging the horizon. Above the sun was a clear gap and above that some high clouds. The pillar emanated from this clearing and extended well beyond it into the clouds. Fifteen minutes later the pillar was history.

Dave Mitsky

[damienpaul]

Wow, that sounds pretty spectacular Dave! Are there any specific links that would show an example of a sun pillar..

[Tiny]

http://ww2010.atmos.uiuc.edu/guides/mtr/opt/ice/gifs/sp1.gif
They took this picture from Africa... its so beautiful :lol:

See : http://ww2010.atmos.uiuc.edu/(Gh)/guides/m...opt/ice/sp.rxml (http://ww2010.atmos.uiuc.edu/(Gh)/guides/mtr/opt/ice/sp.rxml)

[damienpaul]

Tiny, that picture is spectacular!!! Where exactly in Africa was that taken? and a possibly silly question - what causes this phenomena?

[Tiny]

I try : a column of light appearing to extend up from the Sun caused by flat fluttering ice-crystals reflecting sunlight from the upper atmosphere. I mean the atmosphere reflect the sunlight.

cirrostratus clouds
see : http://ww2010.atmos.uiuc.edu/(Gh)/wwhlpr/c...opt/ice/sp.rxml (http://ww2010.atmos.uiuc.edu/(Gh)/wwhlpr/cirrostratus.rxml?hret=/guides/mtr/opt/ice/sp.rxml)

[Dave Mitsky]

Here's another photo of a sun pillar complete with explanatory text - http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap010313.html

Dave Mitsky

[Dave Mitsky]

And here are two more shots of sun pillars:

http://www.puddinmoon.com/miscellaneous_photos.htm

http://dvaa.org/php/mpix.php?p=Harry_Orlin...ind&i=SunPillar (http://dvaa.org/php/mpix.php?p=Harry_Orlind&i=SunPillar)

The second was taken by a fellow DVAA member.

Dave Mitsky

[fogged in]

I have only seen a few of them. I have a photo that I took back in '88 of a sand dune and trees silhoette against an orange sky.
I didn't notice the pillar at the time........... I didn't know what they were, and I was paying attention to making the photo composition.
When I got the slides developed, I was upset at this "almost" nice photo. It had this hazy stripe in the center of it. It kind of ticked me off at the time. I thought it was the film or camera messing up.
Now that I know what they are, I like the photo.

[Stargazer]

A fantastic site to spend a few hours browsing through is Atmospheric Optics (http://www.sundog.clara.co.uk/atoptics/phenom.htm) - you'll understand why when you see it.
But just for an appetiser have a look HERE (http://www.sundog.clara.co.uk/halo/pillar.htm) regarding Sun pillars on this site. B)