Extraordinary weather event: Broken spectrum

Spectre de Brocken en montagne à Madère. © GerritR, Wikimedia Commons, CC by-sa 4.0

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After the rain, if you are a little lucky, you can see the rainbows. They express many colors and have a wonderful semi-circular shape, but where does it come from? Unisciel and the University of Lily 1 give us an explanation in this Kézako episode.

This optical phenomenon has actually been considered a divine phenomenon for a long time. It can be found in everything Mountains Every winter, new videos of “Specter” appear: they are often shot in the Alps, but also in the United States, Japan or Germany. The event got its name from the highest point of a German peak, the Broken, Horse Range, which is found every winter. It was only in 1780, when naturalist Johann Silperschlock saw it in the mountains, that he gave it its name with a mystical tone.

Question about shade, height and droplets

This SpectrumIt can give the impression of following a strange character during an rHiking in the mountains, Really your shadow or the shadow of someone next to you! It is the shadow that falls on the droplets, forming a fog or cloud: in this case, the cloud or fog eventually acts as a screen. The shadow is usually enlarged, elongated, and distorted with large joints.

Around this blurry plan, it will happen Light From The sun Will be redirected. Then a glowing circle forms, which looks small HaloTo do Colors Called the glory of the rainbow. This glowing circle does not always have to be seen: this glory is formed by reaction-diffusion, i.e. Localization In the opposite direction to the radiation of sunlight by droplets.

This phenomenon is seen at altitude, whether in the mountains or on the plane. To see it, you need to have a very dense fog or cloud and sun in front of you. Again. An aircraft, paraglider, ULM orHelicopter, Which is the shadow of the device in the clouds below, the clouds should be less than the actual object. So it is essential that the sky is clear on one side and the cloud on the other and that there is an object or person in the middle. The dimensions of the spectrum are proportional to the distance between the object or person and the cloud or fog.

Airwaves over Norway in 2010. © Studio Grabo

A ghost that is very alive

If you are inside Movement And the demon is your shadow, and it obviously goes with you. But, even when immobile, one may have the impression that this shadow is moving, which makes this look “alive”. Eyes Of the viewer. This motion is very real and is simply explained by the fact that the droplets in this shadow suspension move automatically (they themselves form the cloud), so this spectrum moves or varies in size.

Broken spectrum in the mountains of Madeira. © Nomadic Survivalist

The broken spectrum does not only occur in mountains or airplanes, it sometimes appears in front of headlights. Car ! An object or a person glowing from behind, with clouds below, is enough to create this look.

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