Iceland is just as magical from above… not just the Northern Lights at night, but the Glory as well. The “Glory” (or Buddha’s light) is produced by the backscattering of sunlight off uniformly-sized water droplets. The angular size of the ring is much smaller than a rainbow, and varies with the size of the droplets.
Since childhood, I imagined that a rainbow would be a complete circle if the Earth’s horizon did not get in the way.
The plane’s shadow reminds us that the sun has to be directly behind the observer for the double-bounce within each watery sphere to align across the spectrum.
“The light energy beamed back by a glory originates mostly from wave tunneling, which is when light rays that missed a droplet can still transfer energy into it.”
— SciAm
Otherwise, the angle of refraction would be off by 14° from a perfect 180° reflection back to the observer. The author has been trying to explain the glory phenomenon since 1965!
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