Weather Words: 'Pilot's Glory'

Sometimes also called “the glory of the pilot,” or “pilot’s halo,” a pilot’s glory is an interesting optical phenomenon you can watch for the next time you’re on an airplane.

Glories are caused when sunlight hits tiny droplets of water in the atmosphere. The sunlight backscatters, or deflects off the water droplets. The prism of colors that results from this is only visible if you are viewing it from a position in-between the source of the light and the droplets it is hitting, which is why airplanes are good places to see them.

It’s possible to witness glories without an airplane, but to do so, you need to be on the top of a high mountain, with clouds beneath you and the sun above you. The first reported observation of a glory in this manner was recorded in the mid-1700s on Pambamarca, a mountain in Ecuador.

Ready To Learn More? Here Are Some Recent Weather Words You May Have Missed:

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• L​unar Halo
• M​ackerel Sky
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Y​ou can find our entire archive of Weather Words here.

The Weather Company’s primary journalistic mission is to report on breaking weather news, the environment and the importance of science to our lives. This story does not necessarily represent the position of our parent company, IBM.