The days only get longer from here! The Northern Hemisphere marks the beginning of winter today, but the winter solstice is also the shortest day of the year. The rainbow that encircles the sun in our image, a sun halo, is above Lake Antermoia, in the Dolomite Mountains of northern Italy. Sun halos form when sun or moon light shines through ice crystals suspended in the upper atmosphere. When the light of the sun hits the crystals they serve as a prism, separating the light into individual colors of the spectrum, the same way rainbows occur after a rain shower.
Winter solstice
Today in History
More Desktop Wallpapers:
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Hawaii Volcanoes National Park turns 103
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The Crown Jewel of the North Atlantic
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Lobster tales
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Clark Range, Yosemite National Park, California
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A light on National Hispanic Heritage Month
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Salt ponds of Maras, Peru
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Martin Luther King Jr. Day
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The mountain of 30,000 sakura
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Koala in the Great Otway National Park, Australia
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In praise of bogs, swamps, and marshes
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An underwater rainbow
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Pretty in pink, and purple, and red…
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Málaga, Spain
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On the hunt
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National Pearl Harbor Remembrance Day
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An iris garden in Tokyo, Japan
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Al-Khazneh in Petra, Jordan
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Here s looking at you
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There once was a lighthouse from...
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At the foot of Dubrovnik s Gibraltar
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The crossroads of empires
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Illuminating Annecy
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Diving into the underwater nirvana
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Val Gardena, South Tyrol, Dolomites, Italy
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Have you turned off your electronic device?
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Hallstatt, Austria
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The lemurs of Madagascar
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Composite image of a lunar eclipse
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Travel Sunday: On the Ganges in Varanasi, India
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Sandhill cranes, Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge, New Mexico
Bing Wallpaper Gallery

