Terry Halifax
Northern News Services

Kakisa (Mar 06/00) - Every now and then, we can see a ring around the moon or the sun in the cold arctic sky.

Called "sundogs" or "moondogs," this phenomenon is caused by atmospheric conditions or a grieving god -- it all depends on who you ask.

Many cultures have equated the ring around the moon to mean the sign of a good harvest. Some say it means a change in the weather -- usually calling for rain or snow.

According to Inuit legend, the moon god, Anningan, and the Sun goddess, Malina, are bitter enemies.

The legend suggests that when a man dies or a girl is born, the ring around the moon expresses the grief of Anningan. When the ring is around the sun, Malina mourns the death of a woman or the birth of a boy.

Forecaster at the Arctic Weather Centre, Gary Burke says the "dogs" are caused by light bouncing off tiny suspended ice fragments.

Burke says when the sky has a milky white fog with all these suspended ice particles, a ring will form about 22 degrees around the sun or moon. (A closed fist is about 10 degrees, so two fists from the sun or moon is where you'll find sundogs.)

"It's a reflection of light off the ice particles in the atmosphere," Burke said. "Sometimes it can be like a halo, but other times it's just two bright lines on either side of the sun or the moon."

Colleen Saunders, an aerological observer at the Upper Air Station in Norman Wells, compares the halo to another weather phenomenon.

"It's sort of a rainbow effect on the ice crystals in the air," Saunders said. "They refract the light the way a rainbow does on water vapour."

The ice fog common in the North is a perfect environment for sun- and moondogs, Saunders explained.

"We get that phenomenon when it's really cold and it looks like it's snowing, but it really isn't," she said. "When it's around minus 40 it does that and it's just so cold that the moisture is frozen."

A "dog" will disappear if the cloud of ice becomes too thick for light to pass through or too thin for sufficient light to be reflected.

Whether an act of a grieving god or a cold and foggy night, these "dogs" give us another pretty sight to see in our Northern skies.