On July 31, 2021, I had the rare opportunity to see an optical halo feature known as a Lower Tangent Arc. I was able to take two snapshots.

What makes this lower arc special is that it only appears when the bottom of the halo is both visible and positioned below the celestial horizon. This means it can only be observed from an altitude or elevation high enough where the halo isn’t below the visible horizon, and never from a sea-level perspective.

The ice crystals that create atmospheric halos are also visible as glints of light as they pass near the airplane, appearing as dots of white noise in the photos.