SDO vs Sundog

NASA launched a satellite last week (February 11th) that's going to study the Sun in fine detail. The Official announcement made it sound like(and I'm paraphrasing here, okay?): Wow! We just discovered the Sun is a variable star and the variations in its energy output may affect the weather and climate here on Earth!

Anyway, that's not the only thing this Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) will do/has done. Even before it left the atmosphere the rocket propelling the SDO did something only anecdotally recorded before: It destroyed a sundog.

Watts Up With That has the story: SDO whacks sundog The post includes a description of how a sundog is formed as well as of the SDO's mission. There's a video posted there but a better one in which the sonic boom is clearly seen was posted in the comments by DirkH:




Read the comments at WUWT. They are a hoot!

My favorite:

John F. Hultquist (10:08:09) :

It’s worse than I thought. Is it not enough that penguins, polar bears, and Arctic ice are being destroyed by modern technology? Now Sundogs? Soon there won’t be any left. Help me Save The Sundogs. Join STS. Send $25 to . . .