Coming into Melbourne I noticed an interesting thing. Well, interesting to me anyway.
The shadow of the plane had a bright halo around it (sort of like the Brocken spectre – when you’re walking in clouds on a mountain ridge. So named after the Brocken area of the Hartz mountains in Germany where there were a lot of clouds. The first guy to see it was so frightened he fell off and was killed. Bit of a dumbo as it turned out. The Buddhists, plugged as they are into the universal Wikipedia, think the haloes are a sign of enlightenment. The Christians.. well, we all know about their haloes. Probably all Brocken spectres. Holy Spirit phooey).
As the plane shadow passed over ground features itseemed to distort them.
So I took a series of pictures (good ol’ iPhone) to see what was going on. The halo is clearly visible: at the time I thought it might be a variation on the Brocken spectre, or it might be light rays bending around the fuselage (like the multiple lines when you look through your fingers), or it might be light reflected off the shiny fuselage. Now, having looked at the pictures, I favour the Brocken spectre because the brightest bit around the shadow is pretty well exactly where I was sitting. Although the afternoon was clear, with no cloud, there might have been a slight haze, or the ground might have been acting as the Brocken spectre reflector (a cat’s-eye effect). But the halo didn’t get any larger as the plane shadow got larger (we descended) – this suggests its a local reflection in haze rather than a ground reflection.
Then looking at the lines in the field, it’s clear that there is no distortion, rather the lines get washed out by the bright light, causing a change in contrast. Ditto the buildings
Here’s an aerial Brocken spectre with a halo (called a Glory by meteoroligists).
So there you go. Something else I don’t have to worry about again. Whew!
(and yes, I do have a life thanks).