Pileus or scarf clouds form atop a growing, dense, puffy and white cumulus cloud, due to updrafts from a thunderstorm. Jam Press. The rainbow halo is actually an atmospheric optical phenomenon ...

The clouds must be very thin and made of ice crystals or water droplets of uniform size. So cloud iridescence usually happens in lenticular or alto-cumulus, cirrus and cirrocumulus clouds.

Water droplets condense that can then act as prisms, forming a rainbow cap over the cumulus cloud. ( See photos of sun dogs and other atmospheric delights .) Follow Brian Clark Howard on Twitter ...

A pileus cloud or cap cloud is a small lens-shaped cloud that sits on top of a larger cloud like a hat. They can form on regular cumulus clouds, storm clouds, ash clouds from volcanoes, and even ...

Iridescent clouds, known as "fire rainbows" or "rainbow clouds," occur when sunlight diffracts off water droplets in the atmosphere. And the recipe for these heavenly sights is actually pretty simple.

HOT SPRINGS, Ark. (KTHV) - Sunday night brought much-needed rain, but the clouds are what stole the show. Our social media was flooded with an incredible picture of what looked like a halo rainbow ...

“What happens is that the cumulus cloud, boiling upwards, pushes the air layers above it higher and higher,” Cowley said. “As the air gets pushed upwards, it expands and cools.

The ‘rainbow cloud’ was spotted on August 21 in the sky above China's Haikou. Pileus cloud What was seen in the skies of Haikou on August 21 is called a 'Pileus cloud', also known as a ‘cap ...

A spectacular and vanishingly rare 'rainbow scarf cloud' dazzled residents in China. The unique phenomenon was captured over the city of Haikou on the island of Hainan on August 21.

“What happens is that the cumulus cloud, boiling upwards, pushes the air layers above it higher and higher,” Cowley said. “As the air gets pushed upwards, it expands and cools.

A Pileus cloud, also referred to as a cap cloud and a scarf cloud, was visible in Haikou on August 21. A pileus is created when the quickly rising air in the cumulonimbus (also known as a cumulus ...