Optical phenomena

Red sprites and blue jets are very high altitude upper atmospheric phenomena associated with thunderstorms. They have only recently been documented on camera. Red sprites are massive (as big as 20 km in size), but faint luminous flashes that appear directly above an active thunderstorm and coincide with powerful lightning strikes. Blue jets too are a high altitude optical phenomenon, but are different from sprites. They were first documented in 1994. Blue jets are optical ejections from the…

This is not my first attempt to capture a sun dog though I think this is one of my better ones. Saturday's blizzard died down at just the right time and it made for and incredible sunset. The wind was quite strong during the capture of this image.

Rare optical phenomena known as high altitude solar halos. ~Photo by Steve Gettle

wikipictures on Instagram: “Glory (optical phenomenon) ty @languidd for putting me onto an optical deep dive (more of these posts to follow). go follow them, their…”

A halo is an optical phenomenon produced by light interacting with ice crystals suspended in the atmosphere. Halos can have many forms, ranging from colored or ...

Photographer Kaylyn Messer's wondrous, tiny video of an ice circle on a near Seattle is a divine 20 second meditation: you hear the sound of the river and watch the circle slowly spin. Mandala.

Fata Morgana is a rare and complex optical phenomenon in the atmosphere, consisting of several forms of mirages, in which distant objects are seen repeatedly and with various distortions. It got its name in honor of the sorceress - the character of the English legends of the Fairy Morgana.

Explore Tahneelynn's 2331 photos on Flickr!

Explore the fascinating optical effects of Fata Morgana and mirages. Understand how different air temperatures cause these amazing visual phenomena.

optical illusion