What is Parhelia (sun dogs)?

Parhelia, also called sun dogs, are bright spots that appear next to the sun when it’s shining through special ice crystals in the sky.

Imagine you're playing with a cube-shaped snowflake, not just any snowflake, but one that’s perfectly shaped like a cube. When sunlight passes through these tiny, frozen cubes in the air, it bends a little bit, just like light bends when you look at a straw in a glass of water. This bending makes the sunlight split into different colors, and sometimes it creates bright spots next to the sun, that’s what we call parhelia.

Think of these ice crystals as tiny prisms, like the ones you might find in a crystal necklace. When sunlight hits them at just the right angle, it breaks up into colors and shines down to us on the ground. That’s why sometimes you see two bright spots next to the sun, one on each side.

It's kind of like when you shine a flashlight through a prism, the light splits into rainbows, but instead of rainbows, we get these cool sun dog spots!

Sometimes, it looks like there are two extra suns sitting beside our real sun, that’s how fun and simple parhelia can be!