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parhelion
A bright spot on a solar halo sometimes appearing on either side of the sun, often on a luminous ring or halo.

Also called mock suns, they are bright, colorful light patches which appear in ice clouds 22° or more to either side of the sun.

At sunrise and sunset, the angular separation from the sun is exactly 22°. When the Sun is high, the parhelions may appear diamond-shaped, and no parhelion can occur if the sun is higher than 61°.

This entry is located in the following units: helio-, heli- (page 5) para-, par- (page 13)