Glory Observed on Flight from Prague to Athens

June 22, 2015

Glory2

Photographer: Efthalia Traianou
Summary Authors: Efthalia Traianou; Jim Foster

The impressive glory was photographed during a flight from Prague to Athens, on December 18, 2014. We were flying just above a stratocumulus or an altocumulus cloud deck. The glory's color is similar to that of the rainbow, but cloud droplets interacting with sunlight (diffraction and Mie scattering) rather than raindrops cause the concentric rings of light. However, with both rainbows and glories, the Sun must be behind the viewer (antisolar point) in order to see these phenomena.

Photo Details: Camera Model: Canon EOS 500D; Lens: EF-S18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 IS; Focal Length: 55mm; Aperture: ƒ/11.0; Exposure Time: 0.0040 s (1/250); ISO equiv: 100; Software: Adobe Photoshop CS6 (Windows).