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FramedByNature — Day 293
Published: 2011-10-21 04:25:07 +0000 UTC; Views: 5899; Favourites: 454; Downloads: 0
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Day 293 of 365Something about the clouds today made that silver lining extra special. This is what I like to call "cotton candy" iridescence. Something about this particular type of cumulus (I call them "shear cu" due to the visible rolling motion in them) that brings out the best iridescent colors. In this image, the sun was behind the cloud on the left, close to the yellow and orange colors. Farther away from the sun, the cloud exhibited purple, green, and blue colors.
This is a real phenomenon and can be witnessed by anyone with a pair of sunglasses. Polarized sunglasses probably helps. It's not a manipulated image and only underwent my standard processing (contrast, vibrance, noise).
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Comments: 42
BEAUTIFUL!!!! I've seen rainbow clouds before. They are a rare and amazing scene.
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It's so beautiful! May I please use this on a gay rights teen support group? I think it'd be perfect for my kids! But I never repost anything from here without asking....
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Epic capture! Love this! You have some of the most fantastic photos I've ever seen. Keep it up, man!
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lovely!!!! makes me happy
my sunglasses do that btw!
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I do weather observation and reporting as my full time job...The irisation of particulates in the cloud can actually be seen without sunglasses on some special occasions, and that's a real treat
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Awesome! Yeah, to get that to happen, you've gotta have a particularly good display. These colors were bright, but only because they were so close to the sun. I'm gonna be blind by the time I'm 30 if I keep looking at this stuff lol
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Yeahh, even though you can see it without protection it would probably be best to wear it anyways haha. You make great images so we wouldn't want you going blind haha
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I like how this is not just a documentation of a beautiful natural phenomenon, but it is also compositionally interesting. Very nice.
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Gorgeous colors! I've never seen this myself, but I do have a pair of spiffy polarized sunglasses, so perhaps I'll go hunting for it. ^-^
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Guvmunts comin ta gettus!!!
On a serious note: this is a beautiful shot. Well done.
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They're the best clouds. but you don't need sunnies. I imagine it helps, though. I think it has to do with atmospheric ice? I'm only saying that cos I see them when it's cold, though.
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Yeaaah you need some source of light for atmospheric optics lol. The colors are created when the bright sunlight is refracted through the ice crystals or water droplets of the clouds. The more consistent the crystals/droplets are, the better the iridescence.
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Oh lord, can I please ask you for this photo as well? Please please please 
Anyway, I think it's because the clouds this time are somewhat thicker and denser, so the colors seem thicker and more solid and opaque, AND IT'S SUPER AWESOME!!!!! YOU'RE SUPER AWESOME!!!!!!!
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wow, this is a beautiful example for iridescent clouds. perfect!
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awesome colors in the clouds, looks awesome and great
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Nah, that would look more like this: [link] Circumhorizontal arcs only occur when the sun is at least 58 degrees high. Sun doesn't get above 40 degrees high this time of year around here. Plus this occurred in cumulus, instead of cirrus, where circumhorizontal arcs usually appear
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I didn't even know there was a difference! 
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You should check out this site: [link] Basically all the information you could imagine wanting to know about optics. I could spend hours looking at those photos lol
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I have never seen anything like this before! Thank you for sharing such a magnificent phenomenon.
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Glad to share! Just takes some patience to see I guess. Oh and don't stare into the sun too much
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hmmm, I do hear that staring at the sun is bad...
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