They're decolayers and far above the ground. The ones farther away are faded out so you only see enough at a time to make cool sunbeams show up around the sun (the ones coming out on top are the ones that "point" to the ground far behind you, the ones on the side are actually parallel but look like they're going to the side because of the perspective, and the ones coming from the bottom of the sun are actually far ahead of you. Far enough so trees and other objects in front of you block them from view.
All in all, they work just like you would expect sunbeams to work.