Plane phenomenon that's out of this world
NEXT time you're lucky enough to score a window seat opposite the sun, watch out for this amazing rainbow glory optical illusion. But blink and you'll miss it.
NEXT time you're lucky enough to score a window seat opposite the sun, watch out for this spectacular phenomenon.
The rainbow "glory" optical phenomenon is plane cool - during your flight a series of coloured rings may become visible around the reflection of the 'plane' projected against a layer of cloud.
But be warned, blink and you could miss it.
It's actually a fairly common sight in the skies but can only be seen when certain conditions are met. The clouds must consist of water droplets – not the clouds composed of ice particles higher up in the skies.
Glories are caused by diffraction, where sunlight shines onto water droplets and is reflected back towards the person on the plane, and the droplets interfere with the lights process, scattering it in many directions and creating multiple rings.
We see the individual colours as rings because white light is made of all the colours of the rainbow.
The size of a glory can vary depending on the dimensions of the water droplets and the altitude of the flight.
Travellers have managed to take some stunning photos of glories.
I wasn't quick enough to capture the phenomenon in all its glory on a recent flight, but did snap this image.
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