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Photo gallery: Applied Optics special issue on 'Light and Color in the Open Air'

October 6th, 2011
Photo gallery: Applied Optics special issue on 'Light and Color in the Open Air'
This is a supersun, as seen from an aircraft 39,000 feet (12 km) above Norway. Ice crystals suspended in the air can reflect light from the setting Sun, creating a special kind of mirror image where a second “sun” appears above the real one. Credit: Image courtesy of Gunther Können/Applied Optics

Nature creates countless stunning optical phenomena. Some of the most familiar are rainbows, fog bows, coronas, sprites, and mirages, but other, more complex and often more compelling phenomena are also witnessed and imaged, though far less frequently and often under challenging conditions that require great patience. When captured as images, these phenomena also reveal important scientific insights into the properties of light under normal and extreme natural conditions. To highlight research in this area, the editors of the Optical Society's (OSA) journal Applied Optics, have published a special focus issue on Light and Color in the Open Air. Accompanying the issue is an online photo gallery of the most striking images of natural optical phenomena contained in the papers in this special issue.

The images in the gallery were selected for their evocative qualities, inspirational presentation, and their ability to represent complex optical principles simply. Images include optical phenomena such as moon glitter on the ocean, a lunar corona, noctilucent clouds, mirages, supersuns, and underwater 3-D imaging. The papers in the special issue were contributed by a mix of physicists, engineers, meteorologists, astronomers, and enthusiasts in the field of natural optical phenomena. Also in the issue, a separate news release with images of the first-ever photographs of both triple and quadruple rainbows is available online.

Photo gallery: Applied Optics special issue on 'Light and Color in the Open Air'
These are tenuous noctilucent clouds, which form high above the Earth and only under very specific atmospheric conditions, as seen at twilight from Salakas, Lithuania. Credit: Image courtesy of Audrius Dubietis/Applied Optics

More information:
www.opticsinfobase.org/AO

Provided by Optical Society of America

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