17 November 2022
Last weekend Chris Randall @ultrapeakschris tweeted a video of a shadowy figure walking in step with him in the fog. At first he thought it was another person. Instead it was a Brocken specter with a faint rainbow halo called a glory.
Spooky!
My first Brocken Spectre. Creepy to see it out the corner of my eye and think it was someone else moving pic.twitter.com/j38PhwGZqE
— Chris Randall (@ultrapeakschris) November 13, 2022
Wikipedia describes: A Brocken spectre is the magnified shadow of an observer cast in mid air upon any type of cloud opposite a strong light source (such as the sun). If the cloud consists of backscattered water droplets, a bright area and halo-like rainbow rings called a glory can be seen around the head or apperature silhouette. The phenomenon was named for Brocken Peak in Germany where it frequently occurs.
Sometimes the specter appears to hover in the sky like an angel as did this one with a triple glory that appeared to a mountain climbing team in Tajikistan.
Perhaps you’ve seen a Brocken specter from an airplane. I have, but I didn’t know what it was called.
And finally, you can create a Brocken specter in nighttime fog if you work at it. The caption on this photo says: “On an exceptionally foggy night, I parked my car at one end of the parking lot, facing into the lot, and covered one headlight with a floor mat. Standing before the uncovered light, I photographed the shadow that I was thus casting into the fog : a Brocken spectre.”
Who’s there in the fog? It’s you!
(photos from Wikimedia Commons; click on the captions to see the originals)
WOW! How cool is this? I had never heard of it before. It would freak me out, I’m sure! I have seen one of a plane, but I too did not know what it was at the time. Super cool report, Kate. Have a wonderful day!
reminds me of the twilight zone
This is so interesting! Thank you.