“Sun dog” phenomenon catches eye of Central Texans

A fairly common, but spectacular property of optical physics prompted a flood of pictures from our KXAN viewers on Monday afternoon.
The small rainbow feature that appeared on the sides, top or bottom of the sun yesterday is known as a “sun dog.” This occurs only when the sunshine is filtered through high, thin cirrus clouds.
Optical physics says that when light is refracted at a 22.5° angle by the ice crystals that make up the cirrus clouds, it produces a small rainbow to those