Informative Speech On Sundogs

The Wonders Of the Sky
Ajanayah Tabb
Henning School, Henning MN, United States
Teacher: Mr. Hart

My purpose in doing this project was so I can inform people about Sundogs. Surely someone has wondered how Sundogs are made, how they are there and why they are there. When I go outside and it’s absolutely frigid, I’m too cold to notice. Even when I’m inside I rarely have time. So I want to tell people like me “The Wonders Of the Sky”.

The first thing I had to do was ask myself a question. But there were so many of them. So I sifted it down to a root question. How are Sundogs made?

I did a lot of research on that one question. (A LOT OF RESEARCH!!!). I also did some observation of the sky while I was driving home. I took note of the colors, how cold it was and how the sky looked when the Sundogs appeared.

I learned from Wikipedia that Sundogs are made from hexagonal crystals floating inside of cirrus clouds. They

act almost like prisms, bending the light as they fall from the sky, therefore creating a half rainbow around either side of the sun.
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Sundogs. The beautiful work of God displayed in the sky for every eye to see. Every winter, we see them in all of their marvelous beauty in the sky above us. Yet, we barely even notice them. We may smile or comment, but in reality, we don’t really know the mysteries behind them. Because typically our minds are already filled with important stuff.. I mean, over 11,000,000 pieces of information come in contact with our five senses every second of everyday. So we don’t become overwhelmed, our brain sifts through them at warp speed, separating what we need to know from what we can safely ignore. Thus, 99.9 percent of all incoming data is blithely discarded. So, why should we care? I’m about to tell you why.

Maybe Sundogs remind you of snowmobiling through the woods on a beautiful summer day. Or Nana’s house where you drank warm Hot Chocolate and she told you stories and gave you advice. Sundogs make winter mysterious and almost magical in a way. It leaves you feeling warm inside and fresh with excitement. Yet, we hardly know how they are formed. How are they formed?

Sundogs are made from hexagonal plates (commonly called diamond dust) floating in cirrus clouds.The crystals act as prisms, bending the light of the sun and making it seem as if there are
rainbows on either side.

We call this an optical phenomena. The rainbows or halos typically form 22° away from the sun. If the crystals are randomly oriented, then it makes a complete halo around the sun. Although Sundogs mostly happen in very cold weather, it can happen anytime there are cirrus clouds around the sun. Sundogs aso have various names such as mock sun, phantom sun.

When I discovered this, I also came across another fact. It is likely that the Sundogs that we see on Earth may very well be visible on other planets around us. It is possible to predict the forms of Sundogs as would be seen on other planets and moons. Mars might have Sundogs formed by both water-ice and CO2-ice. On gas planets - Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune and others - other crystals form clouds of periodic elements/substances that can produce halos with four or more

Sundogs.

The Sundogs that I’m talking about though, can look like patches of color around the sun. And sometimes they can almost seem brighter that the sun. Sundogs are red-colored at the side nearest the sun. Farther out the colors grade through oranges to blue. However, the colors overlap considerably and so are muted, never pure or saturated. Whenever most people see anything around the sun, they call it a Sundog. This is not true, as there are many things that can appear to look like Sundogs even though they aren’t. Parhelion (which comes from the Greek word parēlion, meaning “beside the sun”, Halos, Mock Suns, Sun Spokes and others are some of the examples that people confuse Sundogs with.

One that is nevertheless the most commonly confused with Sundogs is the circumzenithal arc (Or CZA for short.) This optical phenomena is truly one of the most beautiful sights there are. The typical sundogs and/or halo is there but then, at the top of the sun, is an upside-down rainbow. Usually the most vivid of all the images sits at about 46° above the sun. The CZA has often been called “the smile in the sky”. Contrary to public awareness, the CZA is not a rare phenomenon, but it tends to be overlooked since it occurs so far overhead. It is worthwhile to look out for it when Sundogs are visible, since the same type of ice crystals that
cause them are responsible for the CZA.

There is an amazing effect called “The Sonic Boom” effect. The Atlas V Rocket took off into the sky when suddenly it hit a Sundog. The ripples spread across the Sundog, completely obliterating it. The spectators looked on with awe as the ripples ended and soon they were left in an fascinated silence as they slowly dissolved.

In different cultures, they have different meanings of what they think Sundogs mean. It seems to me that in the Indian tribes They all have different beliefs and signs. The Ojibwe Indians believe that it is a sign. In the story Sundog Over Sedona it is said
“The Sundog is a clear message from Creator to let us know the prophetic changes are drawing near. The messages handed down to us from the Ancestors of the Keepers of Earth Wisdom are indeed real and it is important for us to shake off the numbness of complacency that weigh heavy upon the senses of our materialistic mind.” The Hopi story ‘The Whirling Rainbow’ shows another point-of-view.
“The Whirling Rainbow is the promise of peace among all Nations and all people. The Rainbow Race stresses equality and opposes the idea of a superior race that would control or conquer other races. The Rainbow Race brings peace through the understanding that all races are one. The unity of all colors, all creeds working together for the good of the whole, is the idea that is embodied in the Whirling Rainbow. When all pathways to wholeness are respected by all cultures, the prophecy of the Whirling Rainbow will be completed.

The Greeks however had a different theory, such as the great Greek poet Aratus. He believes that in the morning they are a sign of rain, snow or an approaching storm. It was true then and still remains true today.

Many people have different theories about by whom and when Sundogs were discovered. Earlier in the 1600’s is a place we hear of sundogs. No one knows for sure but legend has it that the man who discovered them had a dog with him. He noticed that they were always with the sun and it reminded him of a dog with his master. So, many people believe that is how they were discovered. Another discoverer Jakob Hutter. He has

one of the earliest written descriptions there is of Sundogs. He says,”My beloved children, I want to tell you that on the day after the departure of our brothers Kuntz and Michel, on a Friday, we saw three suns in the sky for a good long time, about an hour, as well as two rainbows. These had their backs turned toward each other, almost touching in the middle, and their ends pointed away from each other. And this I, Jakob, saw with my own eyes, and many brothers and sisters saw it with me. After a while the two suns and rainbows disappeared, and only the one sun remained. Even though the other two suns were not as bright as the one, they were clearly visible. I feel this was no small miracle…” Then there’s There is even a theory of Jesus Christ Himself that because it looks like some old paintings where Jesus is
standing looking to the heavens and right behind him there is a sun halo.

In analysis of all of this information, Sundogs really do make up for their names. They truly are a natural phenomena in the whole scheme of things. The very process of making Sundogs happen right in front of our eyes and we don’t even see it. The crystal refraction, the diamond dust swirling in the clouds, all of it. So next time whether you're outside in the cold look up and take time to remember “The Wonders Of The Sky”.