Glory, Baja California

The images above and below show a spectacular phenomenon known as a glory, which is a rainbow-like ring pattern caused by the scattering of sunlight by clouds made of liquid water droplets that are less than 50 micrometers across and all about the same size. These images were taken when a satellite passed directly between the sun and the clouds.

In the image above, captured by the MODIS instrument on NASA’s Aqua satellite in May 2008, the glory runs down the center. The red and orange colors are easiest to see, and the band of color is around 37 miles wide. There is also a bonus von Kármán vortex street created by Guadalupe Island in the upper right of the picture.

The image below shows a slightly less-visible glory, as well as von Kármán vortices behind Guadalupe Island. This shot was taken in June 2007 by NASA’s Terra satellite.

Images: 1) Jesse Allen/NASA. 2) Jeff Schmaltz/NASA.