A Fire Rainbow over West Virginia
Image Credit & Copyright:
Christa Harbig
Explanation:
What's happening to this cloud? Ice crystals in a distant cirrus cloud are acting like little floating
prisms
. Known informally as a fire rainbow for its flame-like appearance, a
circumhorizon arc
appears parallel to the horizon. For a
circumhorizontal arc
to be visible,
the Sun
must be at least 58 degrees high in a sky where
cirrus clouds
present below -- in this case
cirrus fibratus
. The numerous, flat,
hexagonal ice-crystals
that compose the
cirrus cloud
must be
aligned horizontally
to properly
refract sunlight
in a collectively similar manner. Therefore,
circumhorizontal
arcs
are
somewhat unusual
to see. The
featured fire rainbow
was photographed in 2021 near
North Fork Mountain
in
West Virginia
,
USA
.