Hum Posted September 3, 2011 Share Posted September 3, 2011 Pictured, behind this darker cloud, is a pileus iridescent cloud, a group of water droplets that have a uniformly similar size and so together diffract different colors of sunlight by different amounts. The above image was taken just after the picturesque sight was noticed by chance by a photographer in Ethiopia. A more detailed picture of the same cloud shows not only many colors, but unusual dark and wavy bands whose origins are thought related to wave disturbances in the cloud. http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap110824.html Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Soulsiphon Posted September 3, 2011 Share Posted September 3, 2011 Beautiful! Nature never ceases to amaze. (Y) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hum Posted September 3, 2011 Author Share Posted September 3, 2011 Seems like a rainbow on steroids :laugh: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Inklin Posted September 3, 2011 Share Posted September 3, 2011 I've not seen anything like that before but earlier this year I did see an "upside down rainbow" in the clouds caused by the sun shining through tiny ice crystals creating a circumzenithal arc, it only happens when the sun is 32 degrees or less from the horizon - a rare sight outside of the arctic/antarctic circles. I don't have the photographs anymore but it was exactly the same as this picture. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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