#SUB-SUNDOGS OVER TEXAS: Thanksgiving is the biggest travel holiday of the year. It's also a sky watching opportunity. "On Nov. 29th, we were flying 37,000 feet above several layers of ice crystals," says air traveler Ken Skillern. "I photographed this amazingly beautiful #sundog using my iPhone 14 Pro."
Make that a sub-sundog. Ordinary sundogs appear to the left and right of the #sun. The ones Skillern saw were below the sun.
The key to this atmospheric optics phenomenon is the subsun--a dazzling reflection of the sun in the clouds. This subsun acts like a miniature sun, shining through ice crystals to create sub-sundogs and more.
The window seat of an airplane is a great place to see "sub-parhelia."