On cold, sunny days, tiny ice crystals in the atmosphere can create breathtaking displays like halos, sundogs, and light pillars.

Pilots over the Himalayas sometimes witness three suns due to sundogs, an optical phenomenon caused by sunlight refracting through hexagonal ice crystals in high-altitude clouds. These crystals bend ...

Bright patches of light, known as sun dogs, appear when sunlight bends through hexagonal ice crystals in high-altitude clouds. These dazzling displays, often seen in cold, clear conditions or near ...

The blowing snow Thursday created another round of beautiful sun dogs in the sky, prompting a number of questions about how and why they form. Sun dogs are caused by hexagonal ice crystals suspended ...

Bright patches of light beside the sun are not UFOs or extra stars, but a rare and beautiful atmospheric effect caused by ice ...

The ice in a domestic freezer is remarkably different from the single crystals that form in snow clouds, or even those formed ...

For the first time in almost 5,000 years of observations, researchers have fully cataloged optical illusions created in the sky as light shines through ice crystals known as atmospheric halos. The ...

Night isn’t the only time to see gorgeous things in the sky. Some of the most awe-invoking heavenly phenomena can only happen during the day, when the sun is shining. If you live in a place where you ...

When the right conditions come into place, the atmosphere can provide us with stunning visual effects. In order to understand the cause of what we’re seeing, let’s establish the difference between ...