Glory Polarisation

A while ago Les Cowley suggested photographing the glory with a polarising filter. When I got the chance to do this the effect was more obvious than I expected and shows just how complex the glory is. There are also related effects with fogbow polarisation.

The glories on this occasion weren't very strong but with changing fog conditions different aspects showed up. Pairs of images with different polarisation can be viewed by clicking on the underlined text above each image. Switching quickly helps to show how the polarisation varies across the glory.

In the pair of images below I was looking through about 20 metres of thin fog which showed distinct colour in the glory. The emphasis here is on the coloured ring but there are other effects which show up better on the following pages.

Click here to change angle of polariser

Notice how the coloured ring is brightest at the top with vertical polarisation. The sides of the ring are brightest with horizontal polarisation.

The colours in the ring also have a slightly different radius depending on the polarisation. Estimated mean radius of droplets 11 microns.

The orientation of the polariser is shown at the bottom left of each image.

Note: Your browser may need to be set to allow a short script to run. The purpose of the script is to switch the images quickly.