Rainbow-Colored Clouds in Arctic Sky Near Christmas

• Arctic observers received a uncommon festive deal with when rainbow-colored clouds appeared within the skies.
• So-called polar stratospheric clouds had been seen over Norway, Sweden, Finland, Alaska, and Scotland.
• Some noticed the clouds for 3 days in a row, a really uncommon prevalence.

Arctic observers had been granted a uncommon spectacle when uncommon rainbow-colored clouds streaked the skies forward of the vacation season.

A chilly wave sweeping via the Arctic introduced the uncommon polar stratospheric clouds inside view for at the least three days between December 18 and December 20, per the web site spaceweather.com.

“The clouds had been seen within the sky all day, however the colours actually exploded simply earlier than sundown,” stated Norway-based photographer Ramune Sapailaite, per spaceweather.com.

Observers shared photos with spaceweather.com from Norway, Sweden, Finland, Alaska, and at the same time as far south as Scotland, per the information outlet Dwell Science.

The clouds, which additionally go by the identify of nacreous clouds, seem solely in extraordinarily chilly climate. They’re created by tiny ice crystals that scatter daylight creating little rainbows within the sky.

The crystals are suspended within the sky at a particularly excessive altitude, about 9.3 and 15.5 miles above the floor. That is increased than clouds often type, however at extraordinarily chilly temperatures, water vapor can begin to coalesce, creating the crystals, per Dwell Science.

They’re often solely noticed a handful of instances a yr, most sometimes in January. So seeing them for a number of days in a row in December is a really uncommon deal with, per spaceweather.com.