Brocken Spectre

The Brocken Spectre (German Brockengespenst) is an optical phenomenon that got its name near the foggy peak called Brocken in the Harz Mountains in Germany. The illusion appears when a low sun is behind someone climbing these peaks looking downwards into the mist or fog from a ridge or peak. The shadowy figure is referred to as the “spectre”, which converges towards the antisolar point (or the point opposite the sun) around which the glory rings (light halos) are also centered. This phenomenon is often viewed from airplanes, as long as the sun is behind it and there is sufficient atmospheric moisture to cause the diffraction of sunlight.