Fog Bow Over Sheldon

One of our residents took this interesting picture of a Fog Bow over fields on the way into Sheldon this Sunday (8th January 2012). You can just make out the top of Shacklow Wood in the centre of the image, and behind that is the Ironage hill-fort of Fin Cop.

Fog Bows are quite rare, and are formed when fine droplets of water vapour cause light to be reflected back to an observer, but unlike rainbows which form via refraction, diffraction causes the light to be smeared out leading to a white light ‘bow’ in the sky…Quantum physics in action! Click on the picture above to see the image in its full glory.

For more details, please visit Atmospheric Optics or Wikipedia.