I had the privilege of witnessing one while travelling in Eastern Europe. I cannot for the life of me remember which country I was though.
This picture of an irridescent cloud was submitted by a National Geographic reader. The photo was taken in Noida, India.
Photograph by Harish Venkatesh
Published July 18, 2013
A halo of multicolored mist floats over an ominous storm. At first glance it looks like an angelic mural or even extraterrestrial activity. But this breathtaking photo is neither manipulated nor paranormal. It's an iridescent cloud, a phenomenon occurring right in our own atmosphere.
This photo was submitted to National Geographic by V. Harish, a university student and amateur photographer from Noida, India. It was captured in mid-July, shortly after a summer rainstorm, an ideal condition for rainbow clouds.
"I decided to take some shots of the after-shower scenery," said Harish. "As I was working on a shot of a dewdrop, my friend spotted an exuberant colored patch peeking above a cloud."
Iridescent clouds, known as "fire rainbows" or "rainbow clouds," occur when sunlight diffracts off water droplets in the atmosphere. And the recipe for these heavenly sights is actually pretty simple.
Like common cloud-to-ground rainbows, iridescent clouds usually accompany thunderstorms. According to atmospheric phenomena expert Les Cowley, they often appear in the late afternoon, on very hot and humid days. This stems from the fact that most rainbow clouds form on top of cumulus clouds—the fluffy cotton-ball-shaped clouds we often see in children's drawings.
"What happens is that the cumulus cloud, boiling upwards, pushes the air layers above it higher and higher," Cowley explained. "As the air gets pushed upwards, it expands and cools. And sometimes moisture in that air suddenly condenses into tiny droplets to form a cap cloud."
This "cap"—which scientists call a "pileus"—is the source of the brilliant spectacle.
"The droplets in the cap cloud scatter sunlight to form the gorgeous colors," Cowley said.
Though the ingredients for rainbow clouds seem simple, they're not spotted often, and are even less frequently photographed.
"For a moment we thought it was a portal opening for an alien species to come to Earth," said Harish, who had never seen a rainbow cloud before. "But the beauty of it really moved me, so I just took as many shots of it as I could."
A good call, according to Cowley, who says the rainbow clouds aren't a common occurrence.
"Not all pileus caps show iridescence," he said. "I usually get images of them from Florida, Southeast Asia, equatorial Africa."
"I felt very lucky to have seen this in India. It's a very rare sight," Harish said. "Me and the guy who accompanied still joke that it's an alien invasion, and share a laugh about it!"
Follow Lara Sorokanich on Twitter.
24 comments
Hi!~
i believe i have a picture of a rainbow cloud. I've wondered what it was until i read this article of yours
Harish , excellent work .
Its very rare in NOIDA . I have been living in Noida for 25 years and have had no luck to see one like this , though i am an avid sky-watcher in all weather conditions. There is always something great about the skies in day and night at all times and some new scenery .and lighting too !
Congratulations ! Well Done. Keep it up !
Harish, this is great! You make the Shiv Nadar University very proud. Keep the clicking spirits up!
Not so rare! See them a lot here in the mountains! have photos of them on my camera right now. Just look up, people, and see what's up there!
"For a moment we thought it was a portal opening for an alien species to come to Earth". Seriously?
Please notice, that those "rainbows" are of order 3 and higher. Prof. Walter Lewin explains you more in details about them via You Tube in his lecture "Love For Physics". It was in 2011 when the first photographs were taken from a rainbow of order 3. When you know where to look for them, you will discover them. You will learn to detect even the Green Flash. Have a lot of fun with Walter Lewin. (He has now retired from MIT)
I've been lucky to see this phenomenon too and was even luckier to snap it too : )
I've been lucky to see this phenomenon too and was even luckier to snap it too : )
I saw some of them in Salta, Argentina, in 2011, but there was no rain, in fact it was very dry.
Thanks to NatGeo for sharing this photo and the explanation of these rare and most beautiful nature events. I love all things rainbow and now I have a new one to add to my list! To those below who shared their photos, my thanks as well!
Weather phenomena qualify as yet another unusual affinity of mine. The "iridescent cloud" has to be one of the rarest and most breathtaking displays of mother nature.
Saw one of these in Ipoh, South East Asia after a downpour on a hot afternoon in January 2013.
@Debra Medlock I quite agree Debra. I've seen them too. Many people do see such weather phenomena - they just don't notice them or take any interest.
Please, learn from Prof. Walter Lewin via You more about rainbows. I am sure, you will enjoy it. Have a bit patient until you know the phenomenon rainbow with all the details. The Rayleigh Scattering explains all. Crigs
@Nicholas French Beautiful photo, especially the enlarged one! Congratulations for catching this rare event.
@Andrew Booth @Debra Medlock How lucky that you get to see such beauty so frequently! I know that where I'm from it almost never happens—too cold most of the year!
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