Glencoe Blog & Mountain Info » Brocken spectre

Brocken spectre – Atmospheric Optics

10th January 2018

Today was dry but there was a light dusting of new snow which fell during the night it was also a windless day. The snowpack has consolidate slightly but pockets of shallow instability still remain on steeper slopes with a North to East aspect.

The west summit of Bidean nam Bian

The Southerly aspect of the Aonach Eagach Ridge

Buachaille Etive Mor looking well rimed.

The north aspect of Buachaille Etive Mor again well rimed. Crowberry & Raven’s gullies are easy to spot.

Near the summit of Meall a Bhuiridh again the communications mast well rimed

The start of the ‘brocken spectre’

Â A Brocken spectre (German Brockengespenst), also called Brocken bow or mountain spectre, is the apparently enormous and magnified shadow of an observer, cast upon the surfaces of clouds opposite the sun.

As the mountaineer reaches a high ridge, a ghostly figure towers out from the mist, its head sheathed in shimmering rings. A spooky weather effect, which in the past was thought to be a supernatural creature, is photographed in the Scottish mountainsÂ http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-highlands-islands-31447148

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Comments on this post

Mike
10th January 2018 9:51 pm

And a fogbow too. Nice shots.
- glencoeadmin
  11th January 2018 5:30 pm
  
  Many thanks…. take care

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