The Brocken spectre is an optical phenomenon that can be seen on summits of New York State mountains and more commonly from airplanes.

What You Need To Know

  • The Brocken spectre is a type of glory

  • It is also known as a Brocken bow or mountain spectre

  • It's named from the peak in the Harz Mountains in Germany

The Brocken Spectre is a type of optical phenomena called a glory, which is more commonly seen from an airplane window. They are typically seen when passengers see the shadow of the airplane on the clouds below.

The shadow of the airplane actually has nothing to do with the glory, they're just located in the same spot which is opposite of the sun. In order to see a glory from a plane, clouds, mist, or fog need to be below you, in a straight line with the sun and the observers eye.

spectre
Getty Images

The inspiration for this post came from several photos shared in my Facebook hiking group this week of people hiking above the clouds due to an inversion.

wrightspectre
Brocken spectre from Wright Peak. Courtesy of Samantha Visone.

Being on a summit above the clouds for sunrise is a breathtaking experience in its own right. Throw in this awesome optical phenomena and you potentially have a once in a lifetime experience.

It's a bit rarer to see a Brocken spectre from a NYS mountain summit because a layer of undercast is harder to come by at 4500-5000 feet.

It occurs the same way atop a mountain, with the sun at the hikers back, a shadow is cast on the undercast below and the glory appears. Buildings can also cause this as well.

The Mount Washington Observatory has been known to have this effect along with the Whiteface Mountain Observatory. In fact, the Brocken spectre in the cover photo of this blog post is being caused by the Whiteface Mountain Observatory!

So the next time you're flying the friendly skies, or standing on a mountain summit with the clouds below your feet, you'll have something new to look for ðŸŒˆ