Something was within the air recently when a photographer in Finland snapped a surprising shot of concentric rainbow-colored rings across the sun. And it seems that something was pollen.
Mikko Peussa captured the eye-catching images on May 30 near his home in Turku. The multicolored rings are called “pollen coronas” and are brought on by sunlight scattering off pollen within the air, in line with Spaceweather.com. The star-like sparkles that appear in and across the shining rings are individual pollen grains, which might vary in size.
The effect is created by sunlight scattering, or separating into its individual wavelengths, when it hits the pollen’s surface. A number of the wavelengths interfere with or crash into each other, so only certain colours reach the observer, in line with Universe Today. That is generally known as a diffraction pattern.
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The pollen in the pictures comes from pine trees (). Under the microscope, these pollen grains appear like tiny “Mickey Mouses.” Their “ears” are literally a pair of air pockets that help the grains float within the wind. The air sacs align in the identical direction within the wind, which helps to create the diffraction pattern and causes the rings to have a rather elliptical shape, in line with Spaceweather.com.
Pollen coronas only appear when pollen concentrations are very high and might only be clearly seen when the sun or the total moon is partially obscured. Photographers like Peussa often use filters to dam out additional light and make the colours stand out greater than they normally would on a sunny day.
The kaleidoscopic circles sometimes have small bumps that stretch further away from the sun than the remainder of the ring, but experts are unsure exactly what causes this, in line with Universe Today. (None of those bumps are visible in the brand new images).
Pine pollen can be known to create a much larger but equally unusual visual phenomenon. In January, researchers revealed that giant swarms of the tiny grains created massive algae-like sea swirls on the surface of the Baltic Sea in Poland.
Research suggests that pollen concentrations and the length of pollen seasons are increasing because of this of increased atmospheric carbon dioxide from human activity. So, pollen coronas could turn into a more common occurrence in the longer term.
