What Is This Effect Called?

Refraction in ice crystals in the atmosphere essentially creating "rainbows".

Rainbows on the surface manifest as arcs because the land gets in the way.
But if you're in an airplane high up, and the ice crystals cause refraction and
result in a rainbow, there's no land/ground in the way so they form full
circles. Were there no land on the surface, all rainbows would be circles here too.



Jedi

 

THX Jedi. I'm crosseyed now.

 

Yeah. Well, that's exactly what I was going to say. The charismatic refraction of altruistic confluences of the zomachromes in the ultraspheric conflagrications of the psychotraps causes that funny round multicolored thingy. No joking, Jedi, I think you nailed it dead on. Prismatic refraction of light will be circular if it wasn't for the horizon interfering. My favorite natural phenomenom is the Sun Dog, the same effect. Great stuff.

 

So, the pot of gold is at the end of that circular rainbow?

I'm still waiting for a video of a ball of St. Elmo's Fire coming down the aisle of an airliner while flying at altitude.
Supposedly it has happened, but no video taken of it.

 

But that sounds SO MUCH BETTER!!



Jedi

 

That is the sun reflecting off of the airplane, see it all the time.

 

Sometimes, if you are flying just above a cloud bank, you might see the shadow of the plane on the cloud surrounded by a circle like that.

 

Flying is wonderful isn't it. I have seen St. Elmo's Fire and the reflection of an airplane on the clouds when the sun is behind it. BUT the most spectacular was the Northern Lights flying back from the Pendelton Round Up to Friday Harbor in 1973. When we took off at 1930 it appeared as another sunset after glow but too far north but as we attained altitude and the the night darkened the sky we were entertained by a most spectacular array of colors and designs that I have ever seen. I hated to land. St. Elmo's Fire is spooky the way it moves around and shimmers. It described the perimeter of the props in vivid blue light and it could be hypnotic..

 

From ground level, saw a nice one in a Cirrus Cloud this weekend. Just watched it for 5-7 minutes until it dissipated.

 

What's also interesting is a night flight near thunderstorms, and seeing the lightning in the tops of the clouds. Sometimes the lightning goes up!

 

Jim, you must be physic. I just wrote about seeing lightning inside, outside and running up and down the outer surface of thunderhead as we flew past it in a B-24 on our way to Pinecastle Airbase, Orlando.

 

St Elmos fire on the windshields, usually only see it a few times a year but its always cool.

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RpJqkIU6c0Q[/ame]