Vertical Rainbow Columns Beneath a Storm Cloud


 Vertical Rainbow Columns Beneath a Storm Cloud

This rare display isn’t a typical rainbow.
The vertical bands of color are caused by sunlight refracting and reflecting through uniformly shaped ice crystals falling from a high-altitude storm cloud. As the light passes through these crystals, it separates into its component wavelengths, creating pillar-like spectral streaks rather than a curved arc.

The effect requires:

A low Sun angle

Ice crystals aligned vertically

A dense storm cloud acting as a light filter

Under the right atmospheric conditions, gravity and crystal orientation stretch the rainbow into vertical light columns, producing one of the rarest optical phenomena seen in the sky.

šŸ“ Pacific Northwest, USA šŸ‡ŗšŸ‡ø

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