par·he·lic circle

(pär-hē′lĭk)

A luminous halo visible at the height of the sun and parallel to the horizon, caused by the sun's rays reflecting off atmospheric ice crystals. Also called parhelic ring.

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

parhelic circle

(Physical Geography) meteorol a luminous band at the same altitude as the sun, parallel to the horizon, caused by reflection of the sun's rays by ice crystals in the atmosphere

Collins English Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged, 12th Edition 2014 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2003, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2014

ThesaurusAntonymsRelated WordsSynonymsLegend:

Noun

parhelic circle - a luminous halo parallel to the horizon at the altitude of the sun; caused by ice crystals in the atmosphere

parhelic ring, solar halo

halo - a circle of light around the sun or moon

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References in periodicals archive

When cirrus clouds contain ice crystals with the proper orientation, a pair of these parhelia (Greek for "beside the Sun") can appear 22[degrees] or more to either side of the Sun, sometimes on a sky-circling band called the parhelic circle. Dispersion of sunlight passing through the crystals can make parhelia colorful, but no spectral colors appear in the parhelic circle nor in the other, rarer spots of intensified glow on it.

The Near Sky: Paranthelion

These events, which I describe in more detail in my book Marking Time (Wiley, October 1999), seem to have been set in train by a combined Sun pillar and parhelic circle seen by Constantine and his men almost 1,700 years ago.

LETTERS

Just try mentioning in casual conversation that you'd like to see supernumerary arcs (on a rainbow), an upper tangential arc (to the 22[degree sign] halo), or paranthelia (on the parhelic circle).

The Near Sky: Exotic Names and Effects

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