Polar Stratospheric Clouds

Happy Friday! This is Adventure Fix, the #1 email newsletter for channeling your inner travel addict. Polar stratospheric clouds.

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Polar stratospheric clouds

Here’s one for the nephophiles (lovers of clouds).

The strange clouds in the picture above are polar stratospheric clouds. Spotting them is tricky because they only occur in high latitudes when the conditions are just right.

The rainbow light show in the sky is caused by the way the sunlight interacts with the tiny ice crystals that make up stratospheric clouds. These ice crystals are so small that they can float in the air. When the sunlight shines through these tiny ice crystals, it gets scattered and bent in different ways. This bending of light makes the clouds look iridescent.


Explore more:

• Mesmerizing mother-of-pearl clouds over Norway (video)