Iridescent Clouds

When sunlight or moonlight passes through clouds that contain water droplets or ice crystals, light is often refracted in some way. When the cloud is composed of very small water droplets on the order of microns of an inch in size, light is scattered around the droplets, creating the phenomenon of iridescence in the clouds.

On this particular day, the colors were somewhat subtle, but they were definitely more noticable to the naked eye than they appear in these photos. It amazes me that sometimes the human eye can see subtle detail that cameras cannot image, yet in other instances cameras can image things which the eye cannot easily discern. I suppose it is simply the different technology in the two systems, different receptors, aperture, vagaries of focal length/diopter, and what not.

The sun is actually behind the bright spot near the center in the above photo. The circle that appears to the right is simply a "lens flare" from light reflected within the camera mechanism. I did not edit-out the lens flare, though, because I think they're rather interesting.

I cropped and enlarged a portion of the above view, then enhanced it slightly on the computer to achieve two goals: (1) to make the subtle colors stand-out a bit more, and (2) to augment the wonderful and delicate detail in the clouds.

Please, don't just glance quickly at that last photo, but go back and look at it again. Stare at it for a good minute or two. Observe the color, observe those subtle details! Mother Nature is so amazing, despite the science behind it all!

When the water droplets are larger or if the clouds contain ice crystals, the light can be refracted twice, separating the light into brilliant displays called "Fire Rainbows." These are very rare, and even more striking than the "iridescent clouds" phenomenon.