{"id":581033,"date":"2026-08-03T00:59:14","date_gmt":"2026-08-03T00:59:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/581033\/"},"modified":"2026-08-03T00:59:14","modified_gmt":"2026-08-03T00:59:14","slug":"apod-2026-august-2-a-fire-rainbow-over-west-virginia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/581033\/","title":{"rendered":"APOD: 2026 August 2 \u2013 A Fire Rainbow over West Virginia"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"p-md margin-0 media-detail-hero__description\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tExplanation: What&#8217;s happening to this cloud? Ice crystals in a distant cirrus cloud are acting like little floating <a href=\"http:\/\/micro.magnet.fsu.edu\/primer\/java\/scienceopticsu\/newton\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">prisms<\/a>. Known informally as a fire rainbow for its flame-like appearance, a <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Circumhorizon_arc\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">circumhorizon arc<\/a> appears parallel to the horizon. For a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.atoptics.co.uk\/halo\/cha2.htm\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">circumhorizontal arc<\/a> to be visible, <a href=\"https:\/\/science.nasa.gov\/sun\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">the Sun<\/a> must be at least 58 degrees high in a sky where <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Cirrus_cloud\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">cirrus clouds<\/a> present below &#8212; in this case <a href=\"https:\/\/www.colweather.org.uk\/gal-clouds-cirrus.php#Cirrus%20fibratus\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">cirrus fibratus<\/a>. The numerous, flat, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.atoptics.co.uk\/halo\/orplate.htm\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">hexagonal ice-crystals<\/a> that compose the <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Cirrus_cloud\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">cirrus cloud<\/a> must be <a href=\"https:\/\/www.atoptics.co.uk\/halo\/platcol.htm\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">aligned horizontally<\/a> to properly <a href=\"http:\/\/youtube.com\/watch?v=U98KPM2b9IA\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">refract sunlight<\/a> in a collectively similar manner. Therefore, <a href=\"https:\/\/apod.nasa.gov\/apod\/fap\/ap190519.html\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">circumhorizontal<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/apod.nasa.gov\/apod\/fap\/ap151215.html\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">arcs<\/a> are <a href=\"https:\/\/i.pinimg.com\/550x\/81\/21\/c0\/8121c0291fa14d1fe52b9eb007741cac.jpg\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">somewhat unusual<\/a> to see. The <a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/photo?fbid=4794142133932422\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">featured fire rainbow<\/a> was photographed in 2021 near <a href=\"https:\/\/youtu.be\/kROh8JwKnOk\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">North Fork Mountain<\/a> in <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/West_Virginia\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">West Virginia<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/United_States\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">USA<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Tomorrow&#8217;s picture: meteoric photobomb<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Explanation: What&#8217;s happening to this cloud? Ice crystals in a distant cirrus cloud are acting like little floating&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":581034,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[243471,61,60,82,247],"class_list":["post-581033","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-space","tag-apod","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-science","tag-space"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/581033","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=581033"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/581033\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/581034"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=581033"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=581033"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=581033"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}