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View at EarthSky Community Photos. | Wendy Rae captured this picture in late January 2022 and wrote: “Right here within the Elkhorn Vary in Montana, we’re handled to cloud iridescence pretty often, each solar and lunar. This was one of the best show I’ve seen and was instantly seen as soon as the sun dipped behind the mountain.” Thanks, Wendy!
Clouds with rainbow colours
Sky watchers usually report seeing rainbow colours in clouds. There are numerous completely different sorts of rainbow options you would possibly see related to clouds, equivalent to halos and coloured arcs and even true rainbows. However – if the rainbow-like colours are randomly distributed, and if the sun is close by within the sky – what you’re seeing is probably going an iridescent cloud.
These kinds of clouds are attributable to notably tiny ice crystals or water droplets within the air. Bigger ice crystals produce lunar or solar halos, however tiny ice crystals or water droplets trigger gentle to be diffracted – unfold out – creating this rainbow-like impact within the clouds.
The pictures on this web page are principally by way of the EarthSky neighborhood. Our because of all who contributed!
View at EarthSky Community Photos. | Shreya Roy in Kolkata, West Bengal, India, captured this lovely show of iridescent clouds earlier than sundown on July 19, 2023. She wrote: “These kinds of clouds are attributable to notably tiny ice crystals or water droplets within the air. Tiny ice crystals or water droplets trigger gentle to be diffracted – unfold out – creating this rainbow-like impact within the clouds.” We couldn’t have put it higher, Shreya! Thanks.View at EarthSky Community Photos. | Soumyadeep Mukherjee in Kolkata, West Bengal, India, captured this picture of iridescent clouds on August 5, 2021, and wrote: “Iridescent clouds, also called rainbow clouds, are an optical phenomenon attributable to diffraction of sun/moonlight on water droplets or small ice crystals on clouds. This picture was captured earlier than sundown. As I awakened after a midday nap and seemed via the window, I used to be greeted by this lovely cloud and I needed to run. I took the improper lens and the entire thing wouldn’t match on the body. Therefore, a two-shot handheld panorama. I’m glad that it got here out first rate.” Thanks, Soumyadeep!
Extra iridescent clouds
The moon with Jupiter and iridescent clouds, seen over Greece in 2015 by Nikolaus Pantazis.The colours in an iridescent cloud are typically refined and are normally pastel, however in some instances they are often vivid. Right here is cloud iridescence captured by George Quiroga in Boynton Seaside, Florida, in 2012. Picture by way of Wikimedia Commons.
Backside line: You would possibly sometime see an iridescent cloud. These clouds have rainbow-like colours. They’re attributable to very tiny ice crystals or water droplets within the air, which trigger gentle to be diffracted (unfold out).
Deborah Byrd created the EarthSky radio collection in 1991 and based EarthSky.org in 1994. As we speak, she serves as Editor-in-Chief of this web site. She has received a galaxy of awards from the broadcasting and science communities, together with having an asteroid named 3505 Byrd in her honor. In 2020, she was the Training Prize from the American Astronomical Society, the most important group {of professional} astronomers in North America. A science communicator and educator since 1976, Byrd believes in science as a pressure for good on this planet and an important software for the twenty first century. “Being an EarthSky editor is like internet hosting an enormous world get together for cool nature-lovers,” she says.
