how does the atmosphere produce halos?
143433
Prismatic refraction through water vapors in the atmosphere.\n\nAs light shines through the atmosphere, certain things like temperature, barometric pressure, and humidity (the amount of water vapor in the air) come together to produce the right conditions for prismatic refraction.  This is the same process by which rainbows are produced, but can also produce halos around the sun or moon.
133764
Well the sun comes out heats up the water and it turns into water vapor and goes through comdencation  which forms a cloud
17956
The most likely way is to have some sort of atmospheric distortion.  For example followin a volcanic eruption in Mexico, the sun appeared to be green due to the amount of dust and ash that was put up into the air.
404328
For clouds to form the air has to be unstable, meaning that the air at the surface is warmer than the air above. Remember the saying warm air rises? So when the air rises it hits a level called the Lifting Condensation Level or LCL. If the air rises to this point it then can start to condense on particles in the sky forming clouds.
189545
The moon's gravitational pull causes the waves to form.\n\nAnd those waves are what cause wind to be generated.
55567
The sun gives off high-energy charged particles (also called ions) that travel out into space at speeds of 300 to 1200 kilometres per second. A cloud of such particles is called a plasma. The stream of plasma coming from the sun is known as the solar wind. As the solar wind interacts with the edge of the earth's magnetic field, some of the particles are trapped by it and they follow the lines of magnetic force down into the ionosphere, the section of the earth's atmosphere that extends from about 60 to 600 kilometres above the earth's surface. When the particles collide with the gases in the ionosphere they start to glow, producing the spectacle that we know as the auroras, northern and southern. The array of colours consists of red, green, blue and violet.
353300
This question goes all the way back to the formation of the solar system.  Back then, when the Sun was a very young star, it was surrounded by what's known as an 'accretion disk'.  This disk was simply just a lot of gas and dust that never got sucked into the sun.  Eventually, particles started colliding with each other and they started to clump together.  Eventually the clumps started sticking to other clumps, so on and so forth.  However, there was a difference starting to show up.  The sun, being young as it was, was really hot, and it had pretty strong solar winds.  These winds were able to blow lower mass particles (like hydrogen and helium) out of the inner solar system.  So planets like the Earth and Mars were never able to collect these gases.  But out by, say, Jupiter, the winds had calmed down.  And it was a lot colder.  Cold enough, in fact, that water ice could form on the surface of the new planets.  This water ice added to the mass of the outer planets.  Once this ice was added, there was enough mass for the outer planets to incorporate hydrogen gas.  Hydrogen and helium are both incredibly light gases.  If a planet don't have a strong enough gravitational field, then it won't be able to hold on to the H and He.  With the ice and the cooler temperatures, this was able to happen.\n\nWow, I kind of rambled there, but I hope it helps!
311578
It IS the amount of atmosphere, but primarily because of the refraction it causes.\n\nThink of it as looking through a rainbow from the side.  As light travels through dense layers of air, it bends, and the different colors in white light emerge.
146984
Northern lights originate from our sun. During large explosions and flares, huge quantities of solar particles are thrown out of the sun and into deep space. These plasma clouds travel through space with speeds varying from 300 to 1000 kilometers per second. \n\nBut even with such speeds (over a million kilometer per hour), it takes these plasma clouds two to three days to reach our planet. When they are closing in on Earth, they are captured by Earth's magnetic field (the magnetosphere) and guided towards Earth's two magnetic poles; the geomagnetic south pole and the geomagnetic north pole.\n\n\n\nOn their way down towards the geomagnetic poles, the solar particles are stopped by Earth's atmosphere, which acts as an effective shield against these deadly particles.\n\nWhen the solar particles are stopped by the atmosphere, they collide with the atmospheric gases present, and the collision energy between the solar particle and the gas molecule is emitted as a photon - a light particle. And when you have many such collisions, you have an aurora - lights that may seem to move across the sky. \n\nIn order for an observer to actually see the aurora with the naked eye, about a 100 million photons are required.\n\n\nFor more info :-\nhttp://www.northern-lights.no/english/what/cause.shtml
376885
The heat causes waves in the air that affect the passage of light becuase the density is different than the surrounding air.  Same happens if you look at the fron of an  air horn like at a football game. But it's the opposite, it's caused by extreme cold.
451402
None!\n\nAtmosphere is made up of Nitrogen (78%), Oxygen (21%),Argon (0.9%) and other gasses e.g Carbon dioxide, Methane, Rare (inert) gases (0.1%)
1150116
It forms due to diffraction of light by the small water droplets in fog. It's formation is similar to formation of the rainbow.
233922
Warm fronts (lows, low pressure) ride over the top of cold fonts (highs, high pressure).  The winds are going in different directions and can spawn tornadoes.  Also, the water vapor in the warm front air cools as it gains altitude and produces rain.  If there is a lot of turbulence, the water can freeze into droplets of ice which keep going up and down and around in the turbulence produced by the interaction of these air masses.  This produces hailstones.\n\nWarm air is light and laden with water vapor.\nCold air is dryer usually, and always heavier than warm air.\n\nSo you got some different kinds of weather there.\n\nHuge masses of warm, water laden air are found in hurricanes.  The water is in huge, towering masses of clouds.\n\nIn the northern hemisphere, warm air masses (lows) spin counterclockwise.  Cold air masses (highs) spin clockwise.\n\nWarm air comes mostly from the south, cold air from the north.  However, air masses are steered by the Jet Stream also.  Maybe your next topic.\n\nHurricanes have the lowest pressure of all (low barometer reading).
130644
Air masses generally form where turbulence is minimal, and over fairly flat and continous surfaces. So, any area on the earth, with prutrusions as mountain[eg. the andes mt] or areas with turbulence will not allow the formation of airmasses.
479562
Clouds are formed when water vapour in the air is cooled and condenses as part of the water cycle. Clouds consist of billions of tiny water droplets (and even ice crystals) floating in the sky and appear in a variety of shapes and sizes depending on how and where they formed.
502136
Actually, it is the rotation of the earth that causes weather and then clouds.\nThe clouds move across the sky as a result of differences in heat between regions. All of the matter around the earth is held to it by gravity. However, clouds "float" in air. So they will move at slightly different speeds. \n\nEver watch when they stir a milkshake? the different colors all swirl similarly.
1116902
The mechanism of Cloud formation is still not understood. Researchers are now applying Chaos Theory in the study and modelling of cloud behavior.\n\nWe "see" clouds only when the high moisture regions are sufficiently close to refract and reflect light. Actually they are highly dynamic systems.