46° lateral arcs

From Glossary of Meteorology
Revision as of 14:12, 20 February 2012 by imported>Perlwikibot (Created page with " {{TermHeader}} {{TermSearch}} <div class="termentry"> <div class="term"> == 46° lateral arcs == </div> <div class="definition"><div class="short_definition">A ...")
(diff) ← Older revision | Latest revision (diff) | Newer revision → (diff)



46° lateral arcs

A halo in the form of arcs in the vicinity of the halo of 46°, the form of which changes markedly with solar elevation.

Sometimes given the names supralateral and infralateral, depending on whether the arcs are mainly above or below the sun. The supralateral arc appears to the sides and above the halo of 46° when the sun is low; it is concave toward the sun but vanishes for solar elevations above 32°. The infralateral arc can be either convex or concave. For some elevations, either arc may or may not be tangent to the halo of 46°. These arcs are explained by refraction through the 90° prism ends of columnar ice crystals oriented with their long axis horizontal.


Copyright 2024 American Meteorological Society (AMS). For permission to reuse any portion of this work, please contact permissions@ametsoc.org. Any use of material in this work that is determined to be “fair use” under Section 107 of the U.S. Copyright Act (17 U.S. Code § 107) or that satisfies the conditions specified in Section 108 of the U.S.Copyright Act (17 USC § 108) does not require AMS’s permission. Republication, systematic reproduction, posting in electronic form, such as on a website or in a searchable database, or other uses of this material, except as exempted by the above statement, require written permission or a license from AMS. Additional details are provided in the AMS Copyright Policy statement.