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Iridescent mid altitude clouds Iridescent polar stratospheric cloud at sunset over Aberdeen, Scotland Cloud iridescence, seen above the clouds covered with grey clouds, Pondicherry, India. Cloud iridescence or irisation is a colorful optical phenomenon that occurs in a cloud and appears in the general proximity of the Sun or Moon.
The misleading term "fire rainbow" is sometimes used to describe this phenomenon, although it is neither a rainbow, nor related in any way to fire. The term, apparently coined in 2006, [3] may originate in the occasional appearance of the arc as "flames" in the sky, when it occurs in fragmentary cirrus clouds. [4]
Because of this, rainbows are usually seen in the western sky during the morning and in the eastern sky during the early evening. The most spectacular rainbow displays happen when half the sky is still dark with raining clouds and the observer is at a spot with clear sky in the direction of the Sun. The result is a luminous rainbow that ...
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.
In the Anglo-Cornish dialect of Cornwall, United Kingdom, sun dogs are known as weather dogs (described as "a short segment of a rainbow seen on the horizon, foreshowing foul weather"). It is also known as a lagas in the sky which comes from the Cornish language term for the sun dog lagas awel meaning 'weather's eye' ( lagas , 'eye' and awel ...
A circumzenithal arc in Salem, Massachusetts, Oct 27, 2012. Also visible are a supralateral arc, Parry arc (upper suncave), and upper tangent arc.. The circumzenithal arc, also called the circumzenith arc (CZA), the upside-down rainbow, and the Bravais arc, [1] is an optical phenomenon similar in appearance to a rainbow, but belonging to the family of halos arising from refraction of sunlight ...
The ice crystals responsible for halos are typically suspended in cirrus or cirrostratus clouds in the upper troposphere (5–10 km (3.1–6.2 mi)), but in cold weather they can also float near the ground, in which case they are referred to as diamond dust. The particular shape and orientation of the crystals are responsible for the type of ...
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.