My sister-in-law was on a plane last week and looked out her window and saw the shadow of her airplane on the clouds below. There was a strange halo around the shadow. She took this picture of the shadow which followed the plane. Others on the plane noticed it too. Does anyone have an explanation for this?
Inset shows the shadow up close.
Looks like a “glory”!
http://www.weatherquesting.com/glory.htm
its a rainbow
Yes, it’s called a glory. It is an optical phenomenon caused by ice crystals. Here’s an article about it in wikipedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glory_%28optical_phenomenon%29
If I looked out my airplane window and saw a halo around the shadow of my plane, I think I’d update my will real quick.
That is definitely worth submitting to the Earth Science Picture of the Day: http://epod.usra.edu/
Very cool effect, it’s called a “glory”
http://www.weatherquesting.com/glory.htm
Cool site, Pangolin.
its a ufo with elvis in it
Nice pic! It’s a Glory, which is effectively same as a rainbow
If you saw a rainbow from high enough up, it would be a circle, usually we’re on the ground, so we only see a bow. Also, you’d see your shadow in the middle.. because you are always directly between the centre of the rainbow and the sun, only usually, your shadow would be too small to make out. In this case, you have a whole plane as your shadow, it’s big enough, for sure.
Not a lot of people ever see a sight like this, even fewer manage to photograph it. Thanks for sharing!
It’s a glory, whole?
…Above the planet on a wing and a prayer,
My grubby halo, a vapour trail in the empty air,
Across the clouds I see my shadow fly
Out of the corner of my watering eye
A dream unthreatened by the morning light
Could blow this soul right through the roof of the night
There’s no sensation to compare with this
Suspended animation, A state of bliss
Can’t keep my eyes from the circling skies
Tongue-tied and twisted just an earth-bound misfit, I
I found it in wikipedia…similar to the one you posted!
Its essentially a rainbow. A rainbow is the reflection of light that is distorted by the energy coming from a person or object. The part ubder the rainbow is basically the shadow of your head, and the colours are the outline of your head. You see a rainbow when you look at crystalised rain with your back to the sun.
In this case the sun is above the plane and the clouds below are reflecting its shadow and the refracting light around it.
This is one of the best sites on the general subject: http://www.atoptics.co.uk/
Its essentially a rainbow. A rainbow is the refaction and reflection of light. The part under the rainbow is basically the shadow of your head, and the colours are the light refracting in the water. You see a rainbow when you look at rain drops with your back to the sun.
In this case the sun is above the plane and the clouds below are reflecting its shadow and the refracting light around it.
cool.
I wonder how many other people are going to repeat the name and description of the topic like it was their unique expertise that led them to the conclusion.
By the way, did you know it is called a Glory?
JD – One more.
It’s called Glory. Apparently.
Hahaha – Thank God for people like JD! Thanks for saying what I was thinking 🙂
So, is that a parachute in the lower left of the image or just a smudge on the glass / camera lens?
I’m glad to see that a lot of people are aware that this is a glory. =] I’m a Multiengine Commercial Pilot fortunate enough to see this while flying myself. It’s caused from the refraction of the suns rays through the ice crystals of altocirrus clouds, much in the same manner as when white light is passed through a prism and the result is the split of the one ray into all the colors of the visible light spectrum. And I’m pretty sure the airplane is a Southwest Airlines Boeing 737-700 but that’s a longshot and quite trivial.
It’s a glory! lol