Frequency of glories from different observation levels

Glory and Fogbow with interferences at Mt. Zugspitze

The combination of spectre of Brocken with glory and fog bow is named after the German Brocken mountain, even though it cannot be observed there too often. My colleagues from the weather station estimated a frequency of 2 or 3 observations per year at the top of the mountain. The phenomena much more frequently observed at higher mountains.

Since there is no reliable statistics about the frequency of Glories to date, I tried to obtain some tendencies from my own observations on various mountain tops.

I observed at three different mountain tops where I worked for a longer amount of time:

1. Mount Fichtelberg, Ore mountains, 1214m (similar height as Mt. Brocken)
2. Mount Wendelstein, Alps, 1838m (standalone rock)
3. Mount Zugspitze, Alps, 2963m (main mountain chain of the Alps)

Fichtelberg I observed most frequently in the early morning hours without interferences. On Mt. Wendelstein the Glories often long duration phenomena, sometimes very colorful with impressive interferences. On top of Mt. Zugspitze the Glory was visible at every solar altitude, in most cases long duration, with impressive interferences an colors.

I tried to capture the frequency of glory statistically. Since I could not look at the same time periods, the statistics is an approximation.

These observations lead to the following conclusions:

• The frequency of glories increases with altitude (at my observing sites the number of glories increased by a factor of three for every 1000m altitude)
• The higher the altitude of the observation point, the more impressive are the glories! With increasing altitude of the cloud, the size of the droplet in the clouds decreases and interferences become more frequent. Because the smaller and more uniform the droplet size, the more impressive becomes the glory (Simulation of Les Cowley). In the best case, the glory transforms into interferences of a cloud bow.
• The duration of the phenomenon increases with the altitude, too. If the local conditions allow observations well below the horizon, the glory is possible at every solar altitude.

Fichtelberg

Fichtelberg

Fichtelberg

Fichtelberg

Fichtelberg

Wendelstein

Wendelstein

Wendelstein

Wendelstein

Wendelstein

Zugspitze

Zugspitze

Zugspitze

Zugspitze

Moon Glory Zugspitze

Author: Claudia Hinz, Schwarzenberg, Germany

2012 in review

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4,329 films were submitted to the 2012 Cannes Film Festival. This blog had 39,000 views in 2012. If each view were a film, this blog would power 9 Film Festivals

In 2012, there were 20 new posts, growing the total archive of this blog to 192 posts.

The busiest day of the year was August 3rd with 1593 views. The most popular post that day was Dark ring around the sun.

These are the posts that got the most views in 2012.

• 1 Dark ring around the sun January 2012
• 2 Interference Phenomena on Soap Bubble Surface May 2011
• 3 St. Elmo´s Fire on Mt. Hoher Sonnblick December 2012
• 4 Air mirage effects during transit of Venus June 2012
• 5 Full circle rainbow June 2011

Some of your most popular posts were written before 2012. These articles has staying power! Consider writing about those topics again.

We wish you a happy new year and furthermore many interesting observations!