Known in the weather world as a circumhorizontal arc, this rare sight was caught on film on June 3 as it hung over northern Idaho near the Washington State border
The arc isn't a rainbow in the traditional sense—it is caused by light passing through wispy, high-altitude cirrus clouds. The sight occurs only when the sun is very high in the sky (more than 58° above the horizon). What's more, the hexagonal ice crystals that make up cirrus clouds must be shaped like thick plates with their faces parallel to the ground.
When light enters through a vertical side face of such an ice crystal and leaves from the bottom face, it refracts, or bends, in the same way that light passes through a prism. If a cirrus's crystals are aligned just right, the whole cloud lights up in a spectrum of colors.
This particular arc spanned several hundred square miles of sky and lasted for about an hour.
Isn't nature amazing???
courtesy : National Geographic
3 comments:
Thats a wicked photo....
I guess its like a rainbow as you say, simply the way its reflecting light.
Yes Monty. This was a feature put in the National Geographic website and explanation is also from nat geo. I am pretty sure it is not a fake photo. i was really impressed by it when i saw it and never thought a rainbow can be like this...really kool isn't it?
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