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A Girondin photographer filmed a rare phenomenon: his shadow surrounded by a rainbow.
It is at the top of the famous dune of Pilat, at the entrance to the Arcachon basin (Gironde), that nature offered a rare spectacle to a local photographer: a Brocken specter. This optical phenomenon causes the appearance of a considerably enlarged shadow surrounded by a multicolored luminous circle. It was observed and filmed by photographer Florian Clément, Sunday January 28.
As Cnes explains, to obtain this spectrum, it is necessary to have unhindered sunshine on one side and a fog, or a cloud on the other side. By positioning an object in the middle, like its body for example, we get this shadow surrounded by a rainbow. But it is visible only by the subject located between the sun and the cloud.
Brocken’s spectrum is mostly observed in mountainous areas. The name comes from the highest point of the Harz range in Germany, the Brocken. However, this is not a first on the Landes dune, since it was seen in 2016, as Florian Clément assures us on his Facebook account.