What chemicals are in these clouds? [Water, they are Iridescent clouds]

[Zane O'Neill]

Photo's taken 2nd April 2014, Wairaki, New Zealand

 

[cloudspotter]

What chemicals do you think are in them?


(beautiful pics BTW )

 

[Balance]

Same ones as found in rainbows I'd assume?

 

[Bill]

Photo's taken 2nd April 2014, Wairaki, New Zealand

Impossible to tell without gathering samples but at first glance it looks like the diffraction of sunlight through water.

 

[deirdre]

What chemicals do you think are in them?


(beautiful pics BTW )

they are pretty aren't they?

 

[cloudspotter]

they are pretty aren't they?

I love iridescent clouds

 

[Mick West]

See here:
http://www.atoptics.co.uk/droplets/irid1.htm

When parts of clouds are thin and have similar size droplets, diffraction can make them shine with colours like a corona. In fact, the colours are essentially corona fragments. The effect is called cloud iridescence or irisation, terms derived from Iris the Greek personification of the rainbow.

The usually delicate colours can be in almost random patches or bands at cloud edges. They are only organised into coronal rings when the droplet size is uniform right across the cloud. The bands and colours change or come and go as the cloud evolves. They occur most often in altocumulus, cirrocumulus and especially in lenticular clouds. Iridescence is seen mostly when part of a cloud is forming because then all the droplets have a similar history and consequently have a similar size.