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Friday, March 11, 2016

Ghanaians Experienced Halo phenomenon
Andrews Zugah- Ghanadot

Accra,10th March, Ghanadot - Ghanaians were treated to a rare celestial phenomenon which occurred in the skies just before midday, Wednesday March 10, 2010, when a circle of light was seen around the sun.

The huge ring of red-yellow-green band of halo, which circled the sun, was initially thought to be a rainbow.

But in an interview with a Senior Meteorologist and Chief Forecaster at the Kotoka International Airport (KIA), Mr. Sewornuku Anthony, described it as a “ solar halo.”

“It’s like a huge ring of rainbow colours band around the sun, ” he explained much to the amazement of many.

“When the cirrus clouds are composed of ice crystals and then light passes through it, the light is refracted and reflected into various colours we see around the sun…that’s a halo phenomenon…it’s a matter of the sun going through a cluster of ice crystals through the clouds at that level..it’s around 5-10km above the earth’s surface,” he elucidated.

Mr. Sewornuku further pointed out that the appearance of solar halo has no special significance.

“It is only the design it creates around the sun which is intriguing…There is no empirical evidence to show that when one experiences a halo, the rainfall pattern will change in that particular area,” he said.

Ghanadot