Between the disk itself and the rays are three groups of arcs, increasing in diameter and formed from concentric bands looking very much like great Usekh necklaces represented in the Egyptian tombs - and which also finds in the tomb of Meryra, under the "Window of Appearances". This explanation has been proposed, but it doesn't obviate analysis.

In considering this mysterious representation, one immediately asks one's self if it is actually a representation of a symbolic type or the representation of a physical reality.
The decoration of tombs – even Amarnian ones - calls on a set of representations which use a stereotyped language, which varied according to the times. This is how even the scenes of the funeral ceremony, so often present, and of which one could think that they describe the reality of the facts, should only be considered as the idealised adaptation of facts which could have happened differently.

Of course some exceptions occur, as the representation of a special, unique event, happened to the owner. However, these exceptions never relate to natural phenomena, no more than to heavenly phenomena.

The scene which interests us seems to be the only exception known to go against the traditional rules of the representation of a celestial body, which is also a God, and at this Amarnian period, THE God.
It seems that the one represented here is a singular optic event, to be specific, one producing a system of multiple solar halos.

Nowadays, the neon lighting, as well as the height of the scene, do not allow the appreciation of the colours. However, these can be shown here, thanks to the coding provided by Norman de Garis Davies one can restore them. Davies proposed, as an explanation, that it was the disk at its rising when it was surrounded by clouds. These clouds partially filtered the light, giving a form of halo, the rays themselves then only appearing at their periphery. He noticed notably that the hieroglyph "khau" (to rise, shine, emerge) could represent the same image upside-down. He also proposed the possibility that it referred to the scene at the setting of the sun, at the evening sacrifice.
However, the halos at the time of these moments are never accompanied by blue colours and especially not green. There is even no true yellow, except if the cloud is illuminated at its periphery. Besides these halos only show themselves when the sun is under the horizon.

Four essential types are described separated into two groups. Two, so-called solar, occur in the same part of the sky as the sun or the moon, the phenomenon can be nocturnal) and are caused by crystals of ice in the atmosphere. Two others are anti-solar and are caused by droplets of water or fog. The four types of phenomenon can show themselves anywhere in the world, as long as the meteorological conditions combine. They occur in Middle Egypt, including the formation of ice in the atmosphere in early winter.

- The rainbow is an anti-solar phenomenon where light is absorbed and reflected through drops of water (which act like a prism). Some have proposed seeing in these representations of Meryra, a rainbow. This interpretation can surely be rejected straightaway. Indeed, neither the shape, nor the number of stripes, nor the colours, correspond. Besides, the phenomenon is, by definition, on the side opposed to the sun. Let's point out that a full brilliant moon can produce a "moonbow .
- The "glory" is the second anti-solar phenomenon, very rarely noticed on the ground because it represents the projection of the shadow of an object (a plane) or of a person on a cloud, by a sun situated behind. The cloud diffracts light and a circular image results from it where the shade occupies a whitish central circle surrounded by concentric rings, reproducing the colour of the rainbow. This phenomenon doesn't agree either with our case.
- The first solar type phenomenon, rarely observed, is the crown ("corona"). Droplets of water and pieces of ice situated in a cloud which surrounds the sun gives the aspect of an ox eye. The first peripheral circle is always red. Here again, no possible comparison with Meryra.
- Arcs, include actual solar or lunar halos. These are arcs of colour which can only be formed by a concentration of ice crystals, as in cirrus clouds (for example) and only in a cold atmosphere (between –5 and –25 °C). According to their size, their orientation, … many varieties of the optic phenomenon can manifest themselves. Forty six variations have actually been counted, with secondary tangent arcs, the two most frequent being the 22° halo and the 46° halo. These are best visible when the sun is situated between 20° and 30° above the horizon.

Those of the last example are the halos which are the best candidates to explain the representation in the tomb of Meryra. The similarities are striking when one compares the colourful spectra, even though the size of the solar disk is a lot too large. But one imagines comfortably that the Egyptian craftsman chose to represent the disk in its majesty for ideological reasons. The atmospheric conditions can, rarely but perfectly, occur on some mornings of winter in Amarna on the eastern cliffs. On the other hand it has to be cold! However, what if Nefertiti wears a tight dress, Akhenaten himself only has simple loincloth.

We would therefore be in presence of the representation of an event, undoubtedly unique considering its rarity, which would certainly have had sufficient effect on the sovereign so that he had it represent. Perhaps he was accompanied by Meryra that day, which would explain why it is in his tomb that one finds the representation. Could it even be that Akhenaten judged that this phenomenon constituted a sign for the nomination of Meryra?
However, several other people had to have been present, because the observation of the colours and arcs is surprisingly precise.
It would be the lack of space on the wall of the tomb that would have obligated a simplistic representation of the phenomenon.

On the other hand one can only be astonished by the triviality of the commentaries in the accompanying text, which only specifies once that the rays of the Aten encircle the world. One cannot know either, if the phenomenon had an influence on the writing of the famous Hymn to the Aten, attributed to the king.

"Other rare and strange atmospheric phenomena can occur in Egypt, so the site reports the occurrence, on March 7,2006 of a , a phenomenon at the setting of the sun accompanied by strong winds with very small particles of sand."