A Scattering of Atmospheric Optics

The halo,

also known as a nimbus, icebow, or gloriole, is a ring or arch of light refracted through floating ice crystals in earths upper troposphere. Surprisingly, haloes are more common than rainbows.

Sundogs,

also known as mock suns and parhelia, are equally-spaced bright points of light which frequently appear on haloes encircling the sun.

Moondogs,

also known as mock moons and paraselenae, may appear on a lunar halo.

Glories
are created by light refracted through water droplets in mist rather than ice crystals in the troposphere. Like rainbows, they always appear opposite of the sun.

Light pillars

appear when light is refracted through ice crystals with facets that are more or less uniformly-horizontal to the viewer.

Fogbows

are similar to rainbows; however, fogbows are formed by much smaller water droplets which diffract light more extensively. The bands of color in a fogbow are wide and therefore wash each other out.

Moonbows

are very rare; they require rain droplets opposite of a bright full moon in order to appear.

The green flash

can occur when the sun sets over water; as the sun sinks into a hotter portion of the atmosphere, the shifting lens causes the sun to seem higher than it truly is for a brief moment. Green light is refracted more easily than other colors, and so these traces of the sun appear green. Since these traces are very small, the green flash must be magnified via a mirage in order to be seen at all.

Are created when light is diffracted through cloud particles which are thin and of roughly similar sizes.

Iridescent clouds

shining clouds with a ragged texture typically appear in the summer, and only at nightwhen light is scattered through ice crystals which are too small to produce iridescence.

Noctilucent clouds

The earths shadow:

When the eastern horizon is very low, the slope of the earth can cast a shadow on itself after sunset.

Crepuscular rays,

or sun rays, are created when parallel columns of light shine through clouds. The perspective effect makes them appear to diverge.

Sources:
Photos: http://www.wikipedia.org/ Information: http://www.atoptics.co.uk/ http://www.wikipedia.org/