xineann's favorite science pages, page 1

Online nowXineann: XineAnn is a person in a relationship from North By Northwest, Alaska, USA.; Likes 15,822 pages, 251 videos, 2,885 photos • 2,334 fans • Received 503 reviews; Member since Jul 09, 2007

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RussiaToday : SciTech : Extinction 100 times closer than expected: 3:31pm 19 reviews environment, mathematics, science
http://www.russiatoday.ru/scitech/news/27019

K&38;C Mosaic Homepage: 11:55am 1 review science, maps
http://www.eorc.jaxa.jp/ALOS/kc_mosaic/kc_mosaic.htm

Samaya11s profile - StumbleUpon: Jul 3, 9:26am 0 review stumblers, cooking, science, dieting, discoveries
http://samaya11.stumbleupon.com/review/23029151/

Long Trip: Magic Mushrooms Transcendent Effect Lingers: Scientific American: Jul 2, 7:44am 3 reviews science
http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?id=long-trip-magic-mushrooms&sc=rss

TapwaterJs profile - StumbleUpon: Jul 2, 7:44am 0 review stumblers, psychology, science, research
http://tapwaterj.stumbleupon.com/review/23024956/

Stellares profile - StumbleUpon: Jul 2, 7:35am 0 review stumblers, music-instruments, science, music, families
http://stellare.stumbleupon.com/review/23022226/

The Cloud Appreciation Society & The Summertime Halo (July 08)

Jul 2, 7:29am

3 reviews

science, meteorology, weather, clouds
http://www.cloudappreciationsociety.org/july-08/

July Cloud of the Month : The Arc of Many Names The summertime halo, the fire rainbow, the circumhorizon or the circumhorizontal arc... Whichever of its names you decide call it, this enormous, rare, pastel-coloured optical effect will only appear up in the sky when several different factors happen to occur at the same moment. First, there needs to be the right sort of cloud around, for this is one of the many halo phenomena that can only appear as the light shines through ice-crystal clouds, such as this fine Cirrus. The sun also has to be high in the sky (hence the summertime name); in fact, it needs to be at least 58° above the horizon (hence the horizon name).

In order to refract the high sunlight in the right way, the ice crystals that make up the Cirrus cloud must be shaped like microscopic hexagonal plates. They must also be aligned more or less horizontally (hence the horizontal name), for the colours are formed as light rays enter the clear crystals through a vertical side face and exit through their flat bases. So long as the crystals dont wobble too much in the wind, the 90˚ inclination of these two sides results in pure rainbow-like colours. When the crystal alignment is just right, the entire cirrus cloud shines like a flaming rainbow (hence the rainbow name, even though it is not, of course, a rainbow at all). While most halos can be observed over any parts of the planet, this one is generally found only in those countries that lie below 55° latitude. North and south of this, the sun never rises above 57.8° in the sky. (That said, you might still be able to see the summertime halo in higher-latitude countries so long as you manage to climb a high mountain just as all the other requirements happened to coincide.)