Sun Pillar with Upper Tangent Arc.

This was not a typical sun pillar. Just after sunrise two weeks ago in Providence , Rhode Island , USA , a photographer, looking out his window, was suddenly awestruck. The astonishment was caused by a sun pillar that fanned out at the top. Sun pillars, singular columns of light going up from the Sun , are themselves rare to see, and are known to be caused by sunlight reflecting from wobbling, hexagon-shaped ice-disks falling through Earth's atmosphere . Separately, upper tangent arcs are known to be caused by sunlight refracting through falling hexagon-shaped ice-tubes . Finding a sun pillar connected to an upper tangent arc is extraordinary, and, initially, took some analysis to figure out what was going on. A leading theory is that this sun pillar was also created, in a complex and unusual way, by falling ice tubes. Few might believe that such a rare phenomenon was seen again if it wasn't for the quick thinking of the photographer -- and the camera on his nearby smartphone .

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