Ritzville Sundog in the Channeled Scablands

Sundogs are made commonly of plate-shaped hexegonal  ice crystals in high and cold cirrus clouds. These crystals act as prisms, bending the light rays passing through them with a minimum deflection of 22°.  But often, as the crystals sink through the air they become vertically aligned, so sunlight is refracted horizontally — in this case, sundogs are seen.
As the sun rises higher, the rays passing through the crystals are increasingly skewed from the horizontal plane. Their angle of deviation increases and the sundogs move further from the sun. However, they always stay at the same elevation as the sun.
Sundogs are red-colored at the side nearest the sun. Farther out the colors grade through oranges to blue. However, the colors overlap considerably and so are muted, never pure or saturated.

To get a glance of skies from all over the world please go to www.skyley.blogspot.com and enjoy.