This has nothing to do with Oceanography, but at least it is about one of the little wonders of Nature. I was finishing up a three month mini-sabbatical at the University of Stockholm. I’m pretty sure it was January 5, 1996, a very cold Friday. The sky was clear and the air still when I got to my office early that morning. When the sun came up I saw the 22° circle halo, but what really caught my eye were the bright sun dogs to either side. I had seen them many times before, but this time they were so bright! Needless to say I took lots of pictures, in fact I wasted much of what I had left in the camera. Not good for I was going visit a friend in the Stockholm archipelago the next morning, and because the winter had been so cold the city harbor was full of pack ice. The boat ride was bound to be exciting. I had to go into the city to buy some more film.
I got back to the campus a bit before sunset. While walking to my office I suddenly noticed an incredible pattern of bright light high above the sun, now low behind the university library. It was a halo of some kind, but I had never seen anything like it. A beautiful pattern consisting of two graceful ‘wings’ stretching up and out with a barely perceptible shaft of light down toward the hidden sun. I was totally blown by the sight – and instinctively realized that I now knew where angels come from. When I told my colleagues about this a little later at afternoon coffee, they told me it was a halo known as a tangent arc. Normally the 22° circle is also visible, but this time not. What was it if not an angel soaring high in the sky!
