When cloudspotting mountaineers and hill walkers are out on the Brocken mountain, a peak in the Herz range of Northern Germany, they often find themselves climbing through a bank of stratus cloud to emerge into the sunlight above. At this point, they can sometimes come face to face with a ‘Brocken Spectre’. This fantastical apparition looks like a ghost from the sixties, for it is surrounded by rainbow colours and has very flared trousers.

A Brocken Spectre, like that in the photograph above, is not in fact a flower-power ghost at all. Nor is it the result of an LSD flashback. It is merely an optical effect that appears when sunlight, coming from directly behind the cloudspotter, falls onto a layer of cloud droplets. This situation tends to occur only on elevated ground, since the cloudspotter needs to be looking down onto the cloud layer, for the Sun to be shining from directly behind him, along his line of vision. The cloudspotter’s shadow, hugely distorted by the effects of perspective, appears in the middle of a halo of colours, which are officially known as a ‘glory’. This optical effect is still only partially understood.

Of course, cloudspotters don’t have to climb the Brocken to see a Brocken Spectre – any mountain can serve the purpose. Nor is the sight of this psychadelic ghost only available to cloudspotters energetic enough to go mountain climbing. Sometimes, the coloured rings of a glory can also be seen around an aeroplane’s shadow, cast onto the cloud layer below. Is this light effect known as a ‘Boeing Spectre’? No, of course it’s not.

Current Cloud of the Month:
August 2010

Previous Clouds of the Month:
July 2010
June 2010
May 2010
April 2010
March 2010
February 2010
January 2010
Cloud Reflections (December 09)
Numbers in the Clouds (November 09)
Sun Pillar (October 09)
Convection Clouds (September 09)
‘Pile d’Assiettes’ (August 09)
Cumulus congestus (July 09)
‘Asperatus’ (June 09)
Clouds at Night (May 09)
Sundogs (April 09)
Diamond Dust (March 09)
Cloud Streets (February 09)
Crepuscular Rays (Jan 09)
Valley Fog (December 08)
Cloud Shadows (November 08)
Contrails (October 08)
Mamma (September 08)
Kármán Vortex (August 08)
The Summertime Halo (July 08)
The Nor’west Arch (June 08)
Microbursts (May 08)
Irridescent Clouds (April 08)
Northern Lights – Aurora Borealis (March 08)
Ice halos (February 08)
Lightning (January 08)
Roll Cloud (December 07)
Banner Cloud (November 07)
Stratocumulus (October 07)
The Unclassified Cloud (September 07)
Alexander’s Dark Band (August 07)
Fumulus Snail (July 07)
Distrail (June 07)
Altocumulus undulatus (May 07)
Cumulonimbus capillatus (April 07)
Lacunosus (March 07)
Horseshoe Vortex Cloud (February 07)
Jet-Stream Cirrus (Janurary 07)
Altostratus/Altocumulus/Altowhateveritis (December 06)
Anti-Crepuscular Rays (November 06)
Stratocumulus (October 06)
Altocumulus (September ’06)
The Kelvin-Helmholtz Wave Cloud (August ’06)
The ‘Brocken Spectre’ (July ’06)
‘Whale’s Mouth’ (June ’06)
Noctilucent (May ’06)
Cirrus (April ’06)
Cap Cloud (March ’06)
Fallstreak Holes (February ’06)
Nacreous (January ’06)
Cirrostratus (December ’05)
Tuba (November ’05)
Virga (October ’05)
Cirrocumulus (September ’05)
Altostratus (August ’05)
Cumulus (July ’05)
Mamma (June ’05)
Pileus (May ’05)
Lenticularis (April ’05)
Stratus (March ’05)
Cumulonimbus (February ’05)
Contrails (January ’05)


To contribute a Cloud of the Month,
go to our Photograph Submissions page.

Back to home page