Corona - 22.1.2019 at 12.54 - 22.1.2019 at 12.58 Oulu Observation number 80686

• Lightsource of the phenomenon
• • Sunlight
• How did the phenomenon move?
• • Stayed put
• How long time did you see the object fly in the sky?
• • Not known

• Common atmospheric phenomena
• • Corona

    Corona (of the sun) is a colored ring or series of rings visible in the immediate vicinity of the light source. It can appear in both clouds and fog.

    Coronae are formed in very small drops of water. The size of the droplets affects the size of the corona ring. The smaller the droplets on average, the larger the circle is.

    With the water droplets being about the same size as each other, a series of strongly colored corona rings can be seen in the sky. When the droplet size is wide, only one ring with faint colors is visible.

    A corona can also be formed by small ice crystals in the upper clouds, but such coronas are very faint.

    The corona phenomena identification in Skywatch is intended for different kinds of corona rings that appear around the Sun. The coronae of the moon and planets have their own phenomena identification selections.

    Unlike halo rings, which are located apart from the Sun or the Moon, the perimeters form a uniform field of light in the immediate vicinity of the celestial body.

    

    Corona. Image by Ismo Luukkonen.

    

    Corona in the morning mist. Photo by Iida Pennanen.

     

    The distortion of the corona is caused by changing droplet sizes in the cloud. Imabe by Eetu Saarti. 

    

    A solar corona on a thick cloud. The lack of colors and suble changes in shades is hinting about wide range of droplets in different sizes. Photo by Marko Riikonen

    

    Feeble vaque corona. Image by Matias Takala.

     

    

    If the size of the droplets changes drasticly, the corona may appear strongly distorted. Photo by Aki Taavitsainen.

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