Fire Rainbow

This was sent via email by a friend:

THIS IS A FIRE RAINBOW — THE RAREST OF ALL NATURALLY OCCURING ATMOSPHERIC PHENOMENA.
THE PICTURE WAS CAPTURED ON THE IDAHO/WASHINGTON BORDER. THE EVENT LASTED ABOUT 1 HOUR. CLOUDS HAVE TO BE CIRRUS, AT LEAST 20K FEET IN THE AIR, WITH JUST THE RIGHT AMOUNT OF ICE CRYSTALS AND THE SUN HAS TO HIT THE CLOUDS AT PRCEISELY 58 DEGREES.




This is a real photograph of an atmospheric phenomenon known as a circumhorizon(tal) arc, the example shown above was captured on camera as it hung for about an hour across a several-hundred square mile area of sky above northern Idaho (near the Washington border) on 3 June 2006.

In general, a circumhorizontal arc (or "fire rainbow") appears when the sun is high in the sky (i.e., higher than 58° above the horizon), and its light passes through diaphanous, high-altitude cirrus clouds made up of hexagonal plate crystals. Sunlight entering the crystals' vertical side faces and leaving through their bottom faces is refracted (as through a prism) and separated into an array of visible colors. When the plate crystals in cirrus clouds are aligned optimally (i.e., with their faces parallel to the ground), the resulting display is a brilliant spectrum of colors reminiscent of a rainbow.

From: Urban Legend Reference Pages
They have great links and another picture.

This one I've seen more than once: Sundog, parhelia, mock suns. I called them "Trinity of light, Circle of love." Not knowing the name at the time. The sun is in the middle between two small rainbows. My first sighting was in Prescott Valley, Arizona. My artist friend Yvonne called them sundogs.





me in the EE