Glory

Glory is an optical phenomenon that resembles a halo over the shadow of an observer's head in a foggy or cloudy place. The effect is produced by backscattered light (a combination of diffraction, reflection, and refraction) toward its source by a cloud of uniformly sized water droplets.

The size is much smaller than a rainbow. Glory can only be seen when the observer is directly between the sun and the cloud of water droplets. Therefore it is commonly observed on airplanes, with glory around the shadow of the plane over the clouds. Glories can also be seen from mountains and tall buildings when there are clouds or fog below or at observer level.

Glories are often seen in association with the Brocken spectrum.