glory explained?

[gabe]

I was reading the latest hangpara mag and was interested to read about
the hang pilots experience with glory. I remarked that he thought it
was a rare experience and even after years had not seen it. As a motor
pilot it is very common to see glory, possibly due to the proximity
and times of day we fly, as we can often be blasting low over a fog
bank or whatever. What I was surprised to read however was that he
thought it was due to the light refracting off water droplets in the
clouds. I am pretty sure that is is not to do with water droplets at
all because I have seen it on many surfaces including bare dry dirt,
crops of corn and grass, etc. Anyway does anyone really know what
causes it?

[Ancil Nance]

Google the term brocken specter

[Discover Paragliding!]

The glory is a mist/cloud related phenomena, and I would agree that it is sunlight reflecting, refracting, and defracting off of water droplets in the mist/cloud.

Another common site is Heiligenschein. Best described here:

http://www.atoptics.co.uk/droplets/heilig.htm

For dry areas, there is the 'opposition effect' that gives even the most evil doers a nice halo. Read here:

http://www.atoptics.co.uk/atoptics/oppim2.htm

Fun website here:

http://www.atoptics.co.uk

Check out Brocken Spectre while you are there. Creepy... :-)

Brad

See you up there,

Brad and Maren
Your 'Couple' of Instructors
www.DiscoverParagliding.com
503-861-2772 (W) 503-440-0733 (c)

[skf...@effectnet.com]

Depends on where you are from we have plenty of moisture in the northwest

Sf

Sent from my HTC on the Now Network from Sprint!

[Steve Seibel]

"Bright spot" around my gliders shadow but not the towplane's shadow--
especially as soon as the shadows cross over from the tan field to the
green field-- I believe there was no dew and therefore this was mainly
the shadow-hiding effect or opposition effect-- but the green plants
may have some kind of crystalline structure on their surface that
exaggerates the effect in a manner similar to dew drops? (conjecture
on my part)--

http://vimeo.com/33247658

Similar-- "bright spot" over conifer forest, too high for shadow to be
visible-- http://vimeo.com/33037323 -- conifer forests are an ideal
backdrop for the "bright spot"-- why? Because their physical
structure makes lots of shadows, so the shadow-hiding effect at the
anti-solar point is exaggerated? Because of some dew-like crystalline
effect in the surface structure of the green foliage? Your guess is
as good as mine...

Similar-- on grass-- glider shadow has "bright spot", towplane shadow
does not-- you can see by the sun angle that this is the middle of a
summer day, the grass is not dewy-- http://vimeo.com/12570525

Bright spot video-- look closely and you can see that the bright spot
has sort of a tall, narrow aspect to it-- because it is being produced
by a shadow-hiding effect from tall, narrow blades of grass-- then we
climb above the clouds and see the glory-- http://vimeo.com/12837094

Link to "opposition effect"-- note the reference to "crystalline
structure" as well as shadow-hiding--
http://www.atoptics.co.uk/atoptics/oppos1.htm

Steve

[Steve Seibel]

So, the true "glory" with the iridescent rings of rainbow colors
always involves water droplets, but the "bright spot" around the
shadow, at the antisolar point can occur on any textured and/or
crystalline surface.... even if dry... Steve