page_title: Atmospheric optics
section_title: Glory
hierarchical_section_title: Atmospheric optics / Glory
caption_attribution_description: Solar glory at the steam from hot springs at Yellowstone National Park.A glory is an optical phenomenon produced by light backscattered (a combination of w:diffraction, reflection and w:refraction) towards its source by a cloud of uniformly-sized water droplets.
context_page_description: Atmospheric optics is "the study of the optical characteristics of the atmosphere or products of atmospheric processes .... [including] temporal and spatial resolutions beyond those discernible with the naked eye". Meteorological optics is "that part of atmospheric optics concerned with the study of patterns observable with the naked eye". Nevertheless, the two terms are sometimes used interchangeably.
  Meteorological optical phenomena, as described in this article, are concerned with how the optical properties of Earth's atmosphere cause a wide range of optical phenomena and visual perception phenomena.
  Examples of meteorological phenomena include:
  The blue color of the sky. This is from Rayleigh scattering, which redirects higher frequency/shorter wavelength sunlight back into the field of view of the observer.
  The reddish color of the Sun when it is observed through a thick atmosphere, as during a sunrise or sunset. This is because red light is scattered less than blue light. The red light reaches the observer's eye, whereas the blue light is scattered out of the line of sight.
  Other colours in the sky, such as glowing skies at dusk and dawn.
context_section_description: A common optical phenomenon involving water droplets is the glory.  A glory is an optical phenomenon, appearing much like an iconic Saint's halo about the head of the observer, produced by light backscattered (a combination of diffraction, reflection and refraction) towards its source by a cloud of uniformly sized water droplets. A glory has multiple colored rings, with red colors on the outermost ring and blue/violet colors on the innermost ring.
  The angular distance is much smaller than a rainbow, ranging between 5° and 20°, depending on the size of the droplets. The glory can only be seen when the observer is directly between the sun and cloud of refracting water droplets. Hence, it is commonly observed while airborne, with the glory surrounding the airplane's shadow on clouds (this is often called The Glory of the Pilot).  Glories can also be seen from mountains and tall buildings, when there are clouds or fog below the level of the observer, or on days with ground fog.  The glory is related to the optical phenomenon anthelion.
caption: Solar glory at the steam from a hot spring
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