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Rare Fire Rainbow lights the sky


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Singapore 'fire rainbow' cloud phenomenon lights up sky

A rare cloud phenomenon over Singapore has delighted people in the city-state.

The multi-coloured glow appeared in the sky on Monday in the late afternoon, lasting for about 15 minutes, and was seen across the island.

Media reports said it was likely a fire rainbow, which occurs when sunlight refracts through ice-crystal clouds.

Others have also said it could have been cloud iridescence, which happens when water droplets or crystals scatter light.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-39036138


 

 

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Beautiful! 

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The article is wrong is so many ways. This is NOT a "fire rainbow" or a "circumhorizontal arc". This is a common phenomenon called iridescent clouds. This is definitely not rare. I see this sort of event every few weeks.

 

Edited by stereologist
my post was clipped!!!!!
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The term "fire rainbow" was coined by a reporter that couldn't be bothered to figure out what they were reporting on. Unfortunately, others have repeated the term. The correct term is a circumhorizontal arc. As the name suggests such an atmospheric sighting is roughly horizontal. This phenomenon was a blob, not a roughly horizontal rainbow. Rainbows are curved as the name suggests.

These color "blobs" are seen when the clouds are just right. Learn what to look for and when the clouds look good try observing ones near the Sun by obscuring the Sun behind a building. You'll be surprised at how often you can find bright colors in the clouds. When the clouds are thin you can also see color rings around the Moon.

A great place to learn about the things that appear in the sky is: http://atoptics.co.uk/

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Yes quite beautiful.  My wife and I were driving up I-81 to go visit our daughter and her family.  We actually appeared to drive through a rainbow that looked to be miles wide.  There were two rainbows almost back to back.  A very intense one and a faded one.  That was very cool.  We were through so fast we couldn't get a picture of it. Of couse going at 70 mph didn't give us much time to shoot a picture.

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