The Interlake, Manitoba

While driving in to work from my girlfriend’s place in Winnipeg Beach this morning, I was regaled with a spectacular display of sun dogs. Manitoba is known for its “big skies” and the constantly changing day-and-night kaleidoscopic spectacle that this “canvas in the sky” offers to those who take the time to notice.

I find the 22° halo forming a circle around the sun to be particularly interesting — the sun dogs (aka parhelion) dwell on this luminous halo, as if straining outward on the end of a leash. The shorter wavelength in refraction causes the inner edge of the circle to be reddish while the outer edge is bluish. Also, as no light is refracted at angles less than 22° (through air-borne ice crystals, in this case), the sky is actually darker inside the halo than outside of it.

Meegwetch!