Monday, 15 December 2008
Simulations in the middle used plate crystal tilts of 90 degrees to make blue circle. In the lower simulation the 1-3-2 rays responsible for blue circle are shown (probably also 3-1-6 rays contributed, but they were not included).
Blue circle is a circle of about 70 degrees radius around the subanthelic point. The intersection of parhelic circle and blue circle is the location of the blue spot. This gives us a practical insight on why blue spot changes position and elongates with increasing sun elevation ( 1 ).
Also other halos are seen in the photos. Some of these are named in the simulations, which are made with Jukka Ruoskanen's software.