{"id":214192,"url":"https://www.kudos365.com/news/214192-a-fire-rainbow-over-west-virginia-08-02-26","short_url":"https://www.kudos365.com/news/214192","headline":"A Fire Rainbow over West Virginia • 08/02/26","content":"\u003cp\u003eNASA Astronomy Picture of the Day:\u003c/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eWhat's happening to this cloud? Ice crystals in a distant cirrus cloud are acting like little floating prisms.  Known informally as a fire rainbow for its flame-like appearance, a circumhorizon arc appears parallel to the horizon. For a circumhorizontal arc to be visible, the Sun must be at least 58 degrees high in a sky where cirrus clouds present below --  in this case cirrus fibratus.  The numerous, flat, hexagonal ice-crystals that compose the cirrus cloud must be aligned horizontally to properly refract sunlight in a collectively similar manner.  Therefore, circumhorizontal arcs are somewhat unusual to see.  The featured fire rainbow was photographed in 2021 near North Fork Mountain in West Virginia, USA.    Sky Surprise: What picture did APOD feature on your birthday? (after 1995)\u003c/p\u003e\n\n\n\u003cp\u003ePhoto by Christa Harbig\u003c/p\u003e","content_plain":"NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day:\n\nWhat's happening to this cloud? Ice crystals in a distant cirrus cloud are acting like little floating prisms.  Known informally as a fire rainbow for its flame-like appearance, a circumhorizon arc appears parallel to the horizon. For a circumhorizontal arc to be visible, the Sun must be at least 58 degrees high in a sky where cirrus clouds present below --  in this case cirrus fibratus.  The numerous, flat, hexagonal ice-crystals that compose the cirrus cloud must be aligned horizontally to properly refract sunlight in a collectively similar manner.  Therefore, circumhorizontal arcs are somewhat unusual to see.  The featured fire rainbow was photographed in 2021 near North Fork Mountain in West Virginia, USA.    Sky Surprise: What picture did APOD feature on your birthday? (after 1995)\n\n\nPhoto by Christa Harbig","published_at":"2026-08-02T14:16:00-07:00","updated_at":"2026-08-02T14:16:02-07:00","author":{"type":"Person","name":"Specola-","url":"https://www.kudos365.com/profiles/298285-specola"},"description":"Stay up-to-date with Specola on Kudos365. View their photo published Aug/02/2026 on Science - Tech - Astronomy. Browse your favorite topics and share your expertise, too.","type":"photo","image":"https://k365pi.imgix.net/site/apod/generated/03250daf-0a8e-4640-bec9-7fc908044617.jpg?auto=compress,format\u0026fit=max\u0026w=1200\u0026h=1200\u0026q=48","categories":[{"name":"Science - Tech - Astronomy","url":"https://www.kudos365.com/categories/986-science-tech-astronomy"}],"schema":{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"CreativeWork","url":"https://www.kudos365.com/news/214192-a-fire-rainbow-over-west-virginia-08-02-26","headline":"A Fire Rainbow over West Virginia • 08/02/26","image":"https://k365pi.imgix.net/site/apod/generated/03250daf-0a8e-4640-bec9-7fc908044617.jpg?auto=compress,format\u0026fit=max\u0026w=1200\u0026h=1200\u0026q=48","author":{"@type":"Person","name":"Specola-","url":"https://www.kudos365.com/profiles/298285-specola"},"datePublished":"2026-08-02T14:16:00-07:00","subjectOf":[{"@type":"Thing","name":"Science - Tech - Astronomy","url":"https://www.kudos365.com/categories/986-science-tech-astronomy"}]}}