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A rainbow is a narrow, multicoloured semicircular arc due to dispersion of white light by a multitude of drops of water, usually in the form of rain, when they are illuminated by sunlight. Hence, when conditions are right, a rainbow always appears in the section of sky directly opposite the Sun.
The two phenomena may be told apart by their difference in colour profile: supernumerary bands consist of subdued pastel hues (mainly pink, purple and green), while the twinned rainbow shows the same spectrum as a regular rainbow. The cause of a twinned rainbow is believed to be the combination of different sizes of water drops falling from the ...
Iridescence is therefore mostly seen at cloud edges or in semi-transparent clouds, while newly forming clouds produce the brightest and most colorful iridescence. When the particles in a thin cloud are very similar in size over a large extent, the iridescence takes on the structured form of a corona , a bright circular disk around the Sun or ...
Common optical phenomena are often due to the interaction of light from the Sun or Moon with the atmosphere, clouds, water, dust, and other particulates. One common example is the rainbow , when light from the Sun is reflected and refracted by water droplets.
Cloud droplets initially form by the condensation of water vapor onto condensation nuclei when the supersaturation of air exceeds a critical value according to Köhler theory. Cloud condensation nuclei are necessary for cloud droplets formation because of the Kelvin effect , which describes the change in saturation vapor pressure due to a ...
Nacreous clouds, also known as "mother-of-pearl" clouds, are high-altitude clouds that form in the stratosphere, typically at altitudes of 15 to 25 kilometers, and are most commonly observed in ...
Iridescence can for example be due to thin-film interference, the functional analogue of selective wavelength attenuation as seen with the Fabry–Pérot interferometer, and can be seen in oil films on water and soap bubbles. Iridescence is also found in plants, animals and many other items.
In an incredible weather phenomenon, these colorful clouds were seen in the sky above southern China