John A. Lind wrote:
>The more distant streaks across the sky? No. The rays spreading across
>most of the image are called a "glory" which is seen when the sun peeks
>through clouds, or is directly behind a small cloud. This occurs
>naturally, usually with a low angle sun near dawn or dusk with the sun ray
>paths travelling through more of the earths's atmosphere (relative to the
>observer). It has nothing to do with lens flare. It is from the filtering
>of the clouds that varies light intensity and light ray interaction with
>dust/pollutants in the earth's atmosphere. It's the intensity variation
>from the cloud filtering that makes it visible as streaks across the sky.
John, you've got the right description, just the wrong name. A glory is
actually a rainbow-like object, but it is only seen when you are above
the clouds, looking down on them with the sun directly behind you. You
then see a rainbow around your head. They were first seen by hikers on
mountain tops looking down on the clouds. There, they would see their
own shadow with a rainbow around their head. The glory is also sometimes
called the Specter of the Brocken. Now, they are most commonly seen in
airplanes. If you're flying over the clouds, find the airplane's shadow,
and most likely there will be a glory around it, and it will be centered
around where you are located in the plane.
Mark Marr-Lyon
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