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Tuesday, June 5, 2012

The rainbow of fire: An unusual atmospheric phenomenon


The Rainbow of Fire - flicker creative commons in different sections of science and Yahoo! have witnessed some certainly curious natural phenomena as the " tsunami of clouds "that occasionally occurs in some coastal areas such as Panama City in Florida, or the sea of waves that form over the Tide volcano on Tenerife, or even that perfect moment that the photographer managed to capture Tommy Eliassen in one image the Milky Way, the Northern Lights and the passage of a meteorite.
But today we bring is undoubtedly one of the most unusual weather phenomena and beautiful world. 
The scientific term is accurate circunhorizontal arc, although it is popularly known as "fire rainbow" and illuminating the sky like a multicolored bonfire.
However, and although the name of "rainbow of fire" illustrates very well their appearance in heaven, the truth is that if we stick to reality should call them "rainbow ice cream" since that is the true cause of its formation: small ice crystals that reflect light the sun.
Curve circunhorizontal - flicker creative commons is a rare phenomenon because it requires very special conditions for their appearance.
For that to happen we need the sun is above the clouds, casting their light from above them.
It also requires that there are cirrus clouds of hexagonal ice crystals arranged horizontally so that the light is refracted when it passes through creating this symphony of colors in the sky.
To further hinder their formation, and the need cirrus ice crystals circunhorizontales these arcs often occur in very cold places such as Northern European countries, Russia and Canada.
Finally, these rainbows of fire usually have a short duration, about an hour, another added difficulty makes these really unusual phenomena in events to witness ... but who knows, maybe one day all the following conditions and looking at the sky discover one of them. 

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