Rare phenomenon

A photograph shows a spiral cloud formation encircling a tower.

An Iridescent Pileus Cloud over China Yes, but how many dark clouds have a multicolored lining? Pictured, behind this darker cloud, is a pileus iridescent cloud, a group of water droplets that have a uniformly similar size and so together diffract different colors of sunlight by different amounts. The featured image was taken last month in Pu'er, Yunnan Province, China. Also captured were unusual cloud ripples above the pileus cloud. The formation of a rare pileus cloud capping a common…

Extremely rare cloud phenomenon known as Fire Rainbows, spotted over Alaska.

Red sprites and blue jets are very high altitude upper atmospheric phenomena associated with thunderstorms. They have only recently been documented on camera. Red sprites are massive (as big as 20 km in size), but faint luminous flashes that appear directly above an active thunderstorm and coincide with powerful lightning strikes. Blue jets too are a high altitude optical phenomenon, but are different from sprites. They were first documented in 1994. Blue jets are optical ejections from the…

Wildlife is majestic, and observing it can be an amazing experience. However, while for some the wild can be mere minutes away from their homes, being surrounded by nature is a luxury for many. Venturing out to seek beautiful vistas and amazing sceneries can be tricky for the majority of people, too. Trips to the wild can be quite expensive in terms of time, money, and effort. You also often have to be able-bodied and quite fit to go on such adventures. That is why so many of us are so…

A moonbow is a rainbow produced by moonlight rather than direct sunlight.

A fire rainbow - more scientifically known as a circumhorizontal arc - is one of the rarest occurring optical phenomena on earth. Their rarity is ...