[neilep (OP)]

Dear Rainbow Experts of all creeds and colours !

Whilst I was driving the other evening I perchanced to see this RAINBOW type thing in the sky !..I pulled over and took this piccy!!



 [ Invalid Attachment ]

Why's it like that ?...

I wrote to the Rainbow Fairy who lives opposite the sun when it's raining and I am still awaiting an answer....I also await an answer from Richard Dreyfus and Stephen Spielberg http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Close_Encounters_Of_The_Third_Kind  but all my  calls go unanswered !!....can YOU help ?


Oh...the Sun.....was not behind me...it was in fact to the left of the multi-coloured phenomena...a little to the left and it would have been in the same frame but would have over exposed the photo.

[paul.fr]

I saw the same thing last tuesday!
Would you like to know why that happens?....hold on, i should read the question, not just look at the picture...

[neilep (OP)]

.I saw the same thing last tuesday!

I only noticed it because I was wearing sunglasses...(US translation service 'Sunglasses' = 'Shades'....sheesh !!)

.......when taking them off I could barely see it...I had to take the photo through my sunglasses !!

For a while I had a very cool and chic looking camera !!

[neilep (OP)]

Oh go on then !!!...spoil me with an answer !!! []

[paul.fr]

I will try anyway.

Obviously it is a rainbow but within a cloud, and i have only ever seen the one, although i have seen pictures before.

basically, this happens in (typically) cirrus clouds when the ice forms horizontally and the sun is about 58 degrees above the horizon. That's the basics anyway.

[paul.fr]

just checking on what i wrote, and found this:

June 19, 2006—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 (map of Idaho).

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.

This particular arc spanned several hundred square miles of sky and lasted for about an hour, according to the London Daily Mail.

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2006/06/060619-rainbow-fire.html


clouds, gotta love'em

[neilep (OP)]

Thanks Paul,

But how come the sun was also in front of me ?

I've only ever thought rainbows are opposite the sun in a rainstorm !!

[neilep (OP)]

THAT'S REALLY GREAT PAUL !!

THANK YOU

[paul.fr]

Actually, after havinga good look at the picture, i don't think it is a circumhorizontal arc. dangerously, i ask you to let me think on that one!!!

[neilep (OP)]

" Think "  ?.......what that ?

[techmind]

This is what is known as a sundog.
This Google image-search will show many more examples: http://images.google.co.uk/images?sourceid=navclient&q=sundog

There's an explanation here: http://www.atoptics.co.uk/halo/parhelia.htm

In fact the whole of that site looks very nice, see: http://www.atoptics.co.uk/

[paul.fr]

ooh, well done techmind. After a closer look at the pictue i did realise it was not a circumhorizontal arc, and could not for the life of me remember the name "sundog".

[neilep (OP)]

THANK EWE TECHMID also for this FANTASTIC answer....and the awesome links

It really was quite an amazing thing to see....as always the photo did nt do it justice !

THANKS ALSO PAUL.......your self doubt proved fruitful also !

[Karen W.]

I have never seen such a thing.. very cool!

[seasidechair]

Hi, I am trying to find out what it is called also. I saw one today & it looks exactly like yours! I looked up Circumhorizontal Arcs but this is vertical. Some places said it was a Sun Dog but I understood those to be bright spots in the sky. Whatever it is it sure is pretty. I realize it's been a while since you asked the question but have you found an answer yet? Here is a pic of the one I saw. The sun, like your description was also to the left a bit. I had to make sure my eyes were below the car roof in order to see thru the camera or else I would've been taking the photo blind.

[chiralSPO]

I can confirm that these images are definitely sun dogs. Photos often look washed out and one color, but they are (in my experience) always colorful to the eye.

I saw my first one about 8 years ago and thought I was going insane--it was like a sideways rainbow! But after a bit of digging was able to positively identify it. Then, having had my eyes opened to this phenomenon, I have actually seen them another 5 or 6 times since...

[Colin2B]

I can confirm that these images are definitely sun dogs.

Yes, definitely, also called parhelion to be technical.
If you are really lucky you will see a pair one either side of the real sun at 22°.