Glory Observed over Porto Santo, Portugal

Photographer: Telma Silva PiresSummary Authors: Telma Silva Pires; Jim Foster

When on an inbound commercial jet, arriving in Porto Santo (Madeira, Portugal), this lovely glory captured my attention. If you have a strong light source (here it's the Sun) behind you, and you're looking into clouds or fog, then it's possible to see the shadow of the aircraft you're traveling on surrounded by colorful rings. But only passengers on the side of an aircraft looking away from the Sun can see the glory. This optical phenomenon, resulting from the backscattering of light by minute water droplets, is attributed to the process of diffraction of sunlight. The radius of the glory is dependent on the size of the droplets - the smaller the droplets, the bigger the glory.  Photo taken on June 2, 2024.

Porto Santo, Portugal Coordinates: 33.0500, -16.3500

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