Tom Lanning <<tom.lanning>>
sends:

I just finished reading an interesting article in Scientific
American (http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=the-science-of-the-glory)
about our "glories". Quoting from the article summary:

"As in a rainbow, the colors are produced by the microscopic water droplets that
compose clouds, but in the case of glories the physics is more subtle. The light
energy beamed back by a glory originates mostly from wave tunneling, which is
when light rays that missed a droplet can still transfer energy into it. The
understanding gained from glories is helping climatologists to improve models of
how cloud cover may contribute to or alleviate climate change."

More tomorrow.