San Francisco High-Rise Rays

September 23, 2008

092308

Provided by: Mila Zinkova, Fogshadow
Summary Author: Andy Young, Mila Zinkova

The photo above shows seldom observed rays floating over the skyline of San Francisco, California. These are essentially crepuscular rays, formed in the droplets of a remnant morning fog. They’re made visible by the sunlight reflected from the windows of the cylindrical building at center. The fog droplets are fairly large, so they're strongly forward-scattering. This limits the angular length of the rays, which don't extend very far from the image of the Sun formed behind each window. These rays are actually crepuscular rather than anti-crepuscular rays; they're seen in the anti-solar direction because that's where the light source is (the reflection of the Sun off the windows). Photo taken in late morning (date unknown).