Circumhorizontal Arc - Rainbow Cloud

Ok, this IS Real, folks. here is a description of it from the National Geographic:

[link]

"Known in the weather world as a circumhorizontal arc.

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."


Am I lucky or what? And I'm trying to decide wether or not to send it in to National Geographic now....

Still. I feel like all the luck in the world was given to me the moment I decided to glance up.


Mother Nature, I owe You one.




(c)RadiusPhotography/swimagain