The Formation of Coloured Bows and Glories

Abstract

WHEN favourably situated, a person may see rings of coloured light round the shadow of his own head, as cast upon a neighbouring fog-bank or cloud. These coloured rings or glories, as they are called, have been explained by previous writers as merely coronas due to particles near the surface of the cloud scattering light reflected from deeper portions of the cloud; in other words, the effect is regarded as of the same nature as the ordinary corona but due to secondary scattering. That this explanation cannot be accepted as correct is definitely shown by experimental observations made with artificial clouds.