Volcanic Aerosol Sun Halo
A Volcanic Aerosol Sun Halo (a.k.a Bishop’s Ring), caused by particulate matter ejected into the stratosphere by the gigantic Hunga Tonga eruption on January 15th , developed in hazy blue sky after sunrise on Saturday (12th February) . It reached maximum intensity just after 9.00 am and persisted until close to sunset after which there was a brightly coloured volcanic aerosol twilight arch display. It would appear that the concentration of volcanic aerosols in the stratosphere above Eastern Zimbabwe is now sufficiently high to produce optical affects around the Sun during broad daylight in addition to the spectacular Sunrise and Sunset twilight displays experienced during the past few days. Photo taken using an electronic viewfinder to avoid the danger of looking directly at the Sun which was so bright that it overloaded the camera sensor requiring considerable post-processing to recover image detail.