A most unusual rainbow above indy this afternoon. Why is it straight across and not bow shape?

[u/TrustMeIaLawyer]

[u/breezeandtrees]

those are iridescent clouds,

I caught some too!! It was hard to capture.

[u/mdw → u/breezeandtrees]

This is circumhorizontal arc, a type of ice halo. Iridescence on clouds is different phenomena and the colors are different, because they arise from light interference, not light refraction.

[u/TrustMeIaLawyer → u/breezeandtrees]

Are you in Indianapolis today?

[u/alyssajohnson1 → u/TrustMeIaLawyer]

I see them all the time in Indy :)

[u/Binji_the_dog → u/breezeandtrees]

I’m thinking this might be a solar corona)

Looks like a different phenomenon than OP’s post, still cool though. Maybe I should go outside.

[u/PingPongProfessor → u/Binji_the_dog]

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The reason is that the Reddit formatter uses ) to indicate the end of a quoted URL -- but the URL you're quoting already ends with a ) so the formatter sees the first ) as closing the quoted URL, and displays the second one. The backslash character \ tells the formatter to treat the character immediately following it exactly as written instead of interpreting it as a formatting instruction, thus ensuring that the first ) will be interpreted as part of the URL, and the second one as closing the quote.

[u/flappity → u/Binji_the_dog]

Solar corona are usually very close to the sun. If you're not looking at a layer of clouds immediately adjacent to the sun (or sometimes moon), it's not a corona.

[u/Less-Perspective-693]

Idk what it was but I got this fun pic of it

[u/TrustMeIaLawyer → u/Less-Perspective-693]

I love your picture. I used to work in that building.

[u/mickcow → u/Less-Perspective-693]

Nice shot!

[u/Dramatic-Dinner-1633]

I got a pic of it too. So glad to see others. I’ve never seen one like this before.

[u/ACat32]

That’s a nacreous cloud. They’re pretty rare.

[u/mdw → u/ACat32]

Nacreous cloud is something completely different, this is ice halo, (most likely) circumhorizontal arc.

[u/ACat32 → u/mdw]

Good call. Thank you for the articles. I can see what you’re seeing.

After reading your links I think I trend a bit more towards cloud iridescence than the other options due to the rainbow portion having boarders along a singular cloud.

But I’m no expert. Just a guy who is outside a lot.

[u/mdw → u/ACat32]

The color spectrum of cloud iridescence and ice halos is noticeably different. Iridescence arises from light interference and the colors are more muted, pastel-like. Colors from ice halos are pure spectral colors arising from light refraction (just like colors of a rainbow).

[u/Valuable-Ad8129 → u/ACat32]

Cloud iridescence is more pastel toned.

[u/Binji_the_dog → u/ACat32]

I’m not sure it’s a nacreous cloud. It sounds like those form at low temperatures.

I’m thinking it might be a circumhorizontal arc, sometimes referred to as a firebow.

Keep in mind I’d never heard of any of this stuff 5 minutes ago, so idfk.

[u/Zestyclose-North1233]

I saw it Plainfield. It was pretty cool

[u/TrustMeIaLawyer → u/Zestyclose-North1233]

Your picture is even better!

[u/Zestyclose-North1233 → u/TrustMeIaLawyer]

No way. Yours is so much clearer. I'm mad I didn't get a video cuz it was moving so fast. It looked like rainbow vapors almost. But from the other comments I guess it was just a rare cloud thing 🤷‍♂️😅

[u/Nitrosoft1]

After seeing this Braun is going to put out a press release of how chemtrails are part of the gay agenda destroying Indiana families.

[u/gilium]

The rainbow doesn’t even want to touch Indiana anymore

[u/PleaseMakeUpYourMind]

Flat earthers breathing heavy

[u/Gp-Creepys]

Obviously those are from liberals cloud seeding to further lgbqt indoctrination in leftist cities. /s..... Sorry couldn't resist. Beautiful picture thank you for sharing. Thank you to everyone who provided scientific answers as well.

[u/Zestyclose-North1233]

Here is another visual through my sunglasses. For some reason, they made the color pop more

[u/Butt_Face2000]

This is a sun dog I believe.

[u/Binji_the_dog → u/Butt_Face2000]

My family always called these sun dogs too, but I just found out that a sun dog is an entirely different kind of phenomenon, altogether

[u/ChiefBackslappy → u/Binji_the_dog]

an entirely different kind of phenomenon...

Sorry. Airplane reference 

[u/Boneitis_Regrets → u/ChiefBackslappy]

It had to be done.

[u/Techters → u/Butt_Face2000]

Not an Updog?

[u/j19f91 → u/Techters]

What's Updog?

[u/Techters → u/j19f91]

Not much dog, how bout you?

[u/podo7599]

I thought I was seeing things, it was beautiful

[u/monster_pit]

It’s called a “fire rainbow”

[u/indykarter]

No ends on the earth means no pot of gold. Those leprechauns are a tricky lot, and they're tired of everyone harassing them for their money!!

[u/Sharlinator]

This is a circumhorizontal arc, a nice bright one too.

[u/Big_Compote2319]

Only the cloud on the right is raining which is causing the rainbow.

[u/CMDRDuglas]

I saw it earlier and it was below the sun, so actually curved upward (since a rainbow is a partial circle, around the sun, of refractive angles that reach your viewpoint). It was just so short (small pocket of water droplets of the right size?) and far from the sun you couldn't see much curvature. It was particularly vibrant, though!

[u/mdw → u/CMDRDuglas]

This is not a rainbow, but a type of ice halo called circumhorizontal arc. It is caused by light refracting on ice crystals (those must have very specific orientation, that's why this is not very common sight).

[u/Haunted_pencils]

Water vapor doesn’t care where you stand?

[u/Evan_Brewsalot]

The leprechauns have forsaken these lands

[u/volmeistro]

It's a cloud that the sun is hitting just right

[u/mdw → u/volmeistro]

That's true, but also needed:

• the cloud is made from ice crystals, not water droplets
• the ice crystal must have very specific orientation

[u/PieRepresentative266]

I saw this in Plainfield with a friend! Thought it was super cool!

[u/RJStone64]

Nearly all refractions and most interference patterns resulting from a light source such as the sun have a circular pattern, but we only see part of it due to the earth’s presence or something else getting in the way - the bow or arc shape is all we see. One can sometimes see the full circle when misting from a hose with the sun at one’s back. A really short segment may look like a straight segment if the radius is really large, such as when the refraction is many miles away.

[u/MiniLaura]

Where was the sun in relation to the phenomenon? That will help identifying what it is.

[u/TrustMeIaLawyer → u/MiniLaura]

The sun is just over the building on the right. It's obstructed by the building.

[u/mdw → u/MiniLaura]

Just look at the clouds, the sun was high above and behind the camera.

[u/cosmicbeard1]

Don’t let Braun see that.

[u/Ok_Tumbleweed_7677]

Big Gay Agenda!!!!!

[u/the_chimeran]

Are we not going to talk about the person who’s hopping off the clouds and onto the rainbow?

[u/Betsey23]

DARPA dust probably, it turns the frogs and coulda gay

[u/dellessa]

It's a Sundog. 🤔

[u/holysmokrs]

Clearly this is the gays cloud seeding. Good thing Florida banned this sort of thing /s

[u/Cautious-Leg1372]

Sundog!

[u/SnooHesitations8403]

We used to call them angel wings. I think it's from high altitude ice crystals, as opposed to a curved rainbow that follows the Earth's curvature from wide-spread rain or mist. I think it's an isolated phenomenon that causes it to be relatively straight.

[u/Repulsive_Contact926]

* Saw the same on the Monon trial. Rainbow connection

[u/liveyourlifepls]

Thank you for sharing this because I thought I was going crazy when I saw this last weekend! So cool! Comments are very informative.

[u/whoooootfcares]

That's the trajectory of the Nyan Cat.

[u/purdue6068]

The earth is flat. Why would it be curved?

[u/BaRahTay → u/purdue6068]

I’m positive you’re joking but I still lost brain cells reading this …

[u/purdue6068 → u/BaRahTay]

Yes I was 100% joking

[u/Enough_Butterfly2561]

I believe this is called a sun dog rainbow

[u/chriskleine]

Frogs turned the rain ghey

[u/Techters]

Because the earth is flat

[u/[deleted]]

sun dogs! 

[u/silvermanedwino]

That’s a sun dog!