These optical illusions are created by the refraction of sunlight through ice crystals in the atmosphere. For a sun dog to form, there must be hexagonal ice crystals in the sky that float parallel ...

More crystals grow on top of these ice crystals to create hexagonal shapes called snowflakes. Hexagonal means they have six sides. If they fall through cold, dry air, the snow will be powdery.

This outer ring forms due to the unique shape and alignment of hexagonal ice crystals in the cirrus clouds. These crystals act as natural prisms, bending and reflecting sunlight at specific angles.

Under 32 degrees Fahrenheit – that’s zero degrees Celsius – the frozen water molecules arrange themselves into a hexagonal, or six-sided, crystalline shape. As ice crystals grow and clump ...

The phenomenon occurs when tiny, flat, hexagonal ice crystals—around 0.02 mm in size—suspend in the atmosphere and act as miniature mirrors. As light from sources such as streetlights ...

Under 32 degrees Fahrenheit – that’s zero degrees Celsius – the frozen water molecules arrange themselves into a hexagonal, or six-sided, crystalline shape. As ice crystals grow and clump together, ...