What's a sun dog? Many Michiganians wake up to beautiful phenomenon

While this weekend brought the first significant snowfall this season, along with bitterly cold temperatures, residents of Saginaw and other areas of Michigan awoke this morning to a sun dog. 

According to the National Weather Service, sun dogs are colored spots of light that form from the refraction of light through ice crystals. They are located approximately 22 degrees to the left, right, or both from the sun, depending on where the ice crystals are located. The colors are usually red when closest to the sun and blue when outside of the sun dog. The refraction of light looks like a rainbow, only instead of creating an arch, the colors form a circle around the sun. According to Alaska Centers, sun dogs are usually seen in the morning or afternoon during the winter. 

Sun dogs are also known as mock suns or parhelia, which means "with the sun."

When publication Up North Live posted a story about the phenomenon on Facebook, the news gained traction, with users posting their own pictures of sun dogs. 

Dawn Kraemer posted a video of one from East Jordan, Michigan, at 9:40 a.m., when it was only negative seven degrees:

Deb Schimmel posted her own photo from Rochester Road north of 32 Mile in Addison Township: 

Other users said they saw sun dogs in their cities a couple of weeks ago. Amber Anderson posted a picture of a sun dog overlooking Orchard Lake Jan. 6: 

Margaret Cichoracki even saw one from Alaska Saturday:

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