AMAZING LIGHT HALOS CAPTURED BY SKIER IN THE SWISS ALPS

Michael Schneider, an amateur blogger, went skiing in the Swiss Alps with friends hoping to have an exciting and fun-filled day. However, he had no idea that the picture he took would go viral on the internet. Schneider used the opportunity to test out his new smartphone's camera while he was waiting for a friend on the mountain. He uploaded one of the resulting shots to Twitter, and it quickly went viral, capturing stunning halos surrounding the sun.

A barrage of justifications for why and how these rings formed around the sun ensued. An optical phenomenon known as a light halo is created when light interacts with ice crystals suspended in the atmosphere. Although we frequently assume a halo to be only circular, they can actually take on a variety of shapes. Certain shapes, like light pillars and arcs, are more typical than others.

Fortunately for us amateurs, a number of experts got to work annotating Schneider's picture. Using data from the website Atmospheric Optics, Mark McCaughrean, Senior Advisor for Science & Exploration at the European Space Agency, produced an amazing annotation of the various halos visible in Schneider's image. It's amazing to see how many halo examples were included in a single image when examining his diagram.