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As a result, the cloud base can vary from a very light to very dark grey depending on the cloud's thickness and how much light is being reflected or transmitted back to the observer. Thin clouds may look white or appear to have acquired the color of their environment or background. High tropospheric and non-tropospheric clouds appear mostly ...
A Brocken spectre within glory rings. A Brocken spectre (British English; American spelling: Brocken specter; German: Brockengespenst), also called Brocken bow, mountain spectre, or spectre of the Brocken is the magnified (and apparently enormous) shadow of an observer cast in mid air upon any type of cloud opposite a strong light source.
When the Sun is just below the horizon, low-level clouds are gray, middle clouds appear rose-colored, and high clouds are white or off-white. Clouds at night are black or dark gray in a moonless sky, or whitish when illuminated by the Moon. They may also reflect the colors of large fires, city lights, or auroras that might be present. [117]
Ice crystals in the clouds cause them to usually appear white, but the rising or setting sun can color them various shades of yellow or red. [2] [5] At dusk, they can appear gray. [5] Cirrus comes in five visually-distinct species: castellanus, fibratus, floccus, spissatus, and uncinus: [2]
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.
Mammatus cloud seen at Puthenpeedika, India Mammatus clouds formation in Coimbatore, India Mammatus clouds over the Nepal Himalayas. Mammatus (also called mamma [1] or mammatocumulus, meaning "mammary cloud") is a cellular pattern of pouches hanging underneath the base of a cloud, typically a cumulonimbus raincloud, although they may be attached to other classes of parent clouds.
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The effect is created by the reflection of light from tiny ice crystals that are suspended in the atmosphere or that comprise high-altitude clouds (e.g. cirrostratus or cirrus clouds). [1] If the light comes from the Sun (usually when it is near or even below the horizon), the phenomenon is called a sun pillar or solar pillar.