Plane surrounded by 'halo' in rare phenomenon known as 'pilot's glory'

Circular rainbows may sound like the sort of thing you’d only hear about in a Katy Perry song, but it turns out they do exist – in the skies. 

Many people have seen the mysterious rainbows while travelling via plane, looking down at the clouds to see a 360-degree version of the meteorological phenomenon, which is caused by the reflection, refraction and dispersion of light in water droplets. 

Photographer Rich Cruise was one of the lucky people to have recently seen the fully circular rainbow in action, with Sky News reporting he had been flying over Portland, Oregon, at the time and began filming. 

Similar footage was also shared by Southwest Airlines last month after being captured on camera by someone called ‘Christy D’. 

“Have you ever seen a beautiful rainbow halo surrounding your plane’s shadow?” the airline wrote on Facebook. 

“This phenomenon, sometimes known as ‘Pilot’s Halo’, is the result of some really complicated science that’s pretty difficult to understand. But hey, it’s pretty!” 

Meanwhile, TikTok user @redroots_and_littlefoot shared a video of the display in action, also captured on a Southwest flight.

"Glory halo on Southwest," they wrote.

As well as being known as ‘Pilot’s Halo’, the spectacular phenomenon is also often called ‘Pilot’s Glory’. 

Shutterstock/Adriana Iacob

It is caused by a cloud’s water droplets scattering sunlight back towards the source of light – hence why plane passengers often see the incredible display while travelling. 

According to a 2012 Scientific American article by Brazilian physicist H. Moyses Nussenzveig, the first reported case of the phenomenon was in the mid-1700s. 

Of course, the Wright Brothers hadn’t been born at that point, so planes weren’t around at the time. 

In this instance, however, the spectacle was observed on Pambamarca, a mountain in Ecuador, when members of a French scientific expedition saw the multicoloured rings around their heads, appearing like halos. 

Scientific American quotes the mountaineers as saying in 1748: “A cloud that covered us dissolved itself and let through the rays of the rising sun... 

“Then each of us saw his shadow projected upon the cloud... 

“What seemed most remarkable to us was the appearance of a halo or glory around the head, consisting of three or four small concentric circles, very brightly colored... 

“The most surprising thing was that, of the six or seven people who were present, each of them saw the phenomenon only around the shadow of his own head, and saw nothing around other people’s heads.” 

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