What to watch out for next time you fly...

Whenever I fly I try to make sure I get a window seat… I just love the different perspective you get while flying in a plane.

Aside from the scenery and admiring clouds from all different angles. Occasionally you get to witness a few slightly rarer phenomena.

I’ve always enjoyed watching aircraft leave vapor trails especially at sunset but here you can observe the shadow of the vapor trail being left by the aircraft I am traveling in.

A different angle shows where the shadow terminates and if we were closer to the ground, where the shadow of the aircraft would be.

If you look closely, you can just make out a brighter spot at the point of the shadow. Here is a zoomed image which is slightly darker and brighter area is more visible.

The bright spot is actually an optical phenomena called “glory”. It is reflection of light from atmospheric water vapor and clouds. When close to the reflecting moisture the viewer actually sees beautiful circular rainbows. The person taking this photo would have been sitting behind the wing of this aircraft in the area corresponding to the center of the rainbows.

I haven’t been able to photograph this as nicely as the photos available on the web. It’s usually during the aircraft decent as you are passing the clouds nearer the ground that you can observe this at its best.

At this stage of the descent all electronic equipment in my case has usually had to be turned off.

In order for the phenomenon to occur the light needs to be behind the viewer. This would be a photo taken by the pilot with the sun low towards the horizon and directly behind the plane.

The center of the phenomenon is always focused on the observer. For instance the image below would also have been taken by the pilot of the aircraft.

This can also be seen when standing on higher ground with the sun at your back and clouds or mist ahead of you.

So next time you have a window seat keep an eye out for this and other phenomena.