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aureole A poorly developed corona, characterized by a bluish-white disk immediately around the luminary and a reddish-brown outer edge. An aureole, rather than a corona, is produced when the cloud responsible for this diffraction effect is composed of droplets distributed over a wide size-range. The diffracted rays approach the observer from a wide variety of angles, in contrast to the relative uniform diffraction produced by a cloud of more limited drop-size range. Inasmuch as most clouds exhibit rather broad drop-size distributions, aureoles are observed much more frequently than coronas.

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