Mushroom-Shaped Sun
Taken by Helio C. Vital on January 21, 2014 @
Saquarema, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
Click photo for larger image
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Camera Used: SONY DSC-HX300
Exposure Time: 1/2000
Aperture: f/8.0
ISO: 80
Date Taken: 2014:01:21 19:38:34
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Details:
No, it is not too much coincidence at all. The weather conditions that produced the temperature inversion layer that created the "rectangular sun" (see the Jan. 27-28 SpaceWeather Archive), lasted several days and, on January 21, they were already there. As we now know, grazing sunlight penetrating that layer would be refracted and reflected in intricate configurations that would depend on several time-dependent physical parameters. However, telling what would come out of it to reach us and when that would happen is the key issue. We are thus confronted with a mostly
unpredictable ducting effect in which sunlight gets trapped inside a colder air layer and when it manages to escape (if it does) the image of the Sun is severely distorted, stretched or diffused vertically.
Analyzing the images obtained on January 21, one is led to conclude that this particular layer essentially did two things only. It:(1) completely hid the part of the sun behind it or (2) lit up, forming a rectangle with brightness and width depending on the area of the sun`s disc behind it, its height being equal to that of the layer (0.1°) and its length, equal to the maximum width of that hidden part of the Sun. Note how the rectangle becomes wider as more and more of the Sun`s disc becomes positioned behind the layer.
Thus, when light from the setting sun managed to escape the layer and reach our camera on January 23, most of the Sun`s disc was below the horizon already. Then a few patterns could be seen, including a rectangle, apparently resting on the surface of the sea. Two days earlier, however, sunlight coming out of a similar layer was observed at the start of sunset and, as a result, a bright horizontal rectangle of length smaller than the diameter of the real Sun suddenly formed. Resting on top of it was the upper half of the Sun`s real disc. Amazingly enough, a mushroom-shaped sun had formed!
A Sony DSC-HX300 camera was used for these shots that captured the formation of the Mushroom-shaped sun and were taken at 21:38 UTC.
Photographer's website:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/98669508@N03/sets/72157641065452563/
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