Residents in Bengaluru witnessed a unique sight as they looked up at the sky on Monday morning.
The phenomenon looked like a circular rainbow and was visible for over an hour from most parts of the city. It is known as "Sun Halo" and can be distinguished from a rainbow.
While the former is caused by water droplets, ice crystals are responsible for the latter. Similiar to rainbows, halos are visible when viewed from the right angle.
Sun Halos are caused by the splitting of sunlight by ice crystals in the troposphere. White light passes through ice crystals found in cirrus clouds, causing the halo to have colours. As the ice crystals refract light in the sky at an angle of 22 degrees from the sun, the halos are also referred to as '22 degree Halos'.
The shape and orientation of these crystals determine the appearance of the halo, whereas reflection and refraction are responsible for the shape.
Such halos are visible all over the world, throughout the year and are always the same diameter regardless of their position in the sky. They are also very common and can sometimes be used to predict rains.
Cirrus clouds can create a Halo over the moon as well. Lunar halos are generally colourless but at times can seem redder on the inside and blue on the outside. Colours are usually more noticeable in halos around the sun like the one seen in Bengaluru.
Watch how Twitter reacted to the phenomenon here:
PC Mohan, Lok Sabha member from Bengaluru Central constituency, also shared a few pictures of the event.
