Hyderabad residents marvel as rainbow-coloured halo seen around the sun

Hyderabad, June 02: People in Hyderabad witnessed a rare phenomenon on Wednesday as a rainbow circled the sun creating a halo around the star. Netizens were in awe having a glimpse of this rare sight and tried to capture this on their phones.

What is a sun halo?

The phenomenon popularly known as the 22 degree circular halo of the sun or occasionally the Moon (also called a moon ring or winter halo), occurs when the sun's or moon's rays get deflected/ refracted through the hexagonal ice crystals present in cirrus clouds.

These kind of cirrus clouds are generally formed when water vapour freezes into ice crystals at altitudes five to ten kilometres above the earth's surface.

It's a very common phenomenon in the cold countries. But in our countries it's occurrence is rare and cannot be predicted... The red and blue ring around the sun was seen for more than 30 minutes.

Take a look at some of the pics that are going viral on Twitter: