Look at the photo of this rainbow....Have you EVER seen one like this before?
It looks like a rainbow that's been set on fire, but this phenomenon is as cold as ice.
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.
has anyone ever seen a rainbow like this before? I think it's amazing how mother nature comes up with these natural ideas!!
Isn't it just like northern lights with more colors in it? It is pretty.
That's a really cool picture, especially looking at it from a slight angle on the laptop screen so the colors partially invert and get dark around the outside and the rainbow really stands out.
"All of creation will sing to the glory of it's Creator..."
Anyway, I have seen a rainbow caused by the same thing. I teach Weather Merit badtge @ a Boy Scout Camp, so I tend to look at the clouds a lot throut the summer... I saw a rainbow like this one once, about an hour before sunst... it wasn't as big or as bright as this one though. I love nature.
"We are predestined to determine our own destiny... Elit Druin."
Wow!!! I think I could stare at that for hours; sometimes it is neccessary to sit in awe over creation for a while. Beautiful!
Bekka Joy