What are rainbow clouds?
While auroras occur when solar wind collides with atoms in the Earth's atmosphere, rainbow-coloured ‘polar stratospheric clouds’ (PSCs) are caused by tiny atmospheric ice crystals.
So-called ‘rainbow clouds’ are a result of cloud iridescence caused by small water droplets or ice crystals diffracting the sun’s light.
The effect can sometimes be witnessed in small areas of low-level clouds. But the display is far more dramatic when it happens higher up, in the stratosphere.
Rainbow 'Scarf' Cloud Spotted in China – But Is It Fake?
Have you ever heard of rainbow clouds? This natural phenomenon has been occurring in China, and it's a sight to behold. Rainbow clouds, also known as iridescent clouds, are a rare and stunning spectacle in the sky.
Now, if you’re thinking that those videos make the cloud look a bit too good to be true, well, you might actually be right. While the first picture (at the very top of the article) is a shot of a real scarf cloud, the rest of the videos and pictures may have been doctored. Booo!
According to a handy Twitter thread from hoax-spotting account HoaxEye, it looks as if someone’s used Photoshop to make the cloud look a bit more colourful than it actually was. A similar thread from Scottish meteorologist Scott Duncan went a step further and said the video might not be real at all and that a picture of a scarf cloud taken on August 16 in the Chinese city of Yunnan has likely been superimposed onto videos of Haikou.
