Glory
All photos taken by and (c) Bruce G. Marcot.
You very well may have seen a "glory" while
flying in a plane, and looking down at the ground through some
hazy clouds, when the sun was on the opposite side.
What is a "glory?"
It is the backscattering of sunlight off of water droplets,
occurring in supercooled air. Glories typically are pale, although
they may be ringed by subtle rainbow colors.
Following is a view of a glory from a cross-country flight:
This 5-frame animation begins with the wide-angle
shot showing the tiny glory under the wing of the
plane ... then zooms in progressively.
The final frame is a color-saturated enhancement
to better display the rainbow rings.
Also ... can you tell where I am sitting in the plane?
In the photo to the left, above, a brilliant glory shines like
a mini-sun.
Remember, the real sun was 180 degrees from me, on the "antisolar"
point viewable from the other side of the plane.
In the photo
to the right, above, is a less commonly-seen fogbow
extending from the glory like a halo.