NON Spectral "Rainbows" and Black Shock Wave Ripples

[Kevin Norton]

Hey All,


Although technically an optical phenomena,because of their association (at least in my case) with severe weather, I post it as a weather related topic. I think others may find it interesting and perhaps may possibly consider it as a rare "precursor" to a heavy storm.

Have any of you ever seen iridescent "sun dog" patches that were OUT of spectral order (ie red next to blue or orange next to indigo,etc). FWIW,This defies conventional optics.

I have seen this only once or twice (years ago) but at least per MY observations, only in severe thunderstorm cirrus anvils. Such manifestations are described in William Corliss' " Handbook of Unusual Natural Phenomena".

Again , only once or twice and years ago I have also seen black "interference" ripples travel across cirrus near thunderstorms. These seem to be sonic in nature and per the "Handbook" had also been noted during big artillery barrages (ie WW II).

My "Handbook" is buried somewhere in deep storage (gotta dig it out).

One of these phenomena was dubbed "Beaming Cirrus".I believe this refers to the rainbow topic,but it could refer to the black ripples (I am not sure)..

I am not really looking for an in depth DEEP theoretical exchange on how these topics occur (although a quick and "light" insight might be nice).

I am really just curious if anyone else has ever seen these things or has WWW references (I could find none off hand).

Kevin Norton N1NQC

 

[Kevin Norton]

Update, FWIW. I dug out my "Handbook" and found ample reference to the Black Rippling / Shock Wave Phenomena,but nothing (so far) about non spectral color displays, either in the book or on the web.

K

 

[Jake Orosi]

Dead thread perhaps, but I think I have some insight to lend. I believe the "black ripples" might not be acoustical in nature.

Take a look at this video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E4sY98zsBH0

Pay close attention to the small cirrus patch above the thunderhead in the distance. See how it looks to be rapidly changing shape? It's not really, of course; the thing is, cirrus clouds are composed primarily of ice crystals, and unlike drops of vapor, suspended ice crystals under certain conditions can carry static charges on their surfaces...and when they do, strong local electromagnetic fields can affect them. In that video, the lightning in the thunderhead is causing the EM field above it to fluctuate rapidly, which in turn causes those static-charged ice crystals hanging in the air above to reorient themselves accordingly. The light reflecting off them as they reorient in the air lends the illusion of a cloud rapidly changing shape.

I believe a phenomenon like this may be responsible for the "black ripple" effect, perhaps the disordered spectrum effect. If the cirrus ice crystals happen to be carrying a static charge ahead of the advancing storm, the storm's electrical discharges could be capable of causing all kinds of spectacular displays.

 

[Stan Rose]

Just a comment, Kevin: i have a suspicion that what you observed was cloud iridescence (your description of them as being "iridescent" is kind of telling ) which is NOT the same as a sun dog phenomena--the former is caused by diffraction, not refraction as in sun dogs. The key was whether they were 22 degrees from the sun--and your comment that you observed it in a thunderstorm makes me suspect you saw the former was involved, cause ive seen iridescence in anvil cirrus, and seen plenty of sun dogs, but no sun dogs in t-storm anvils that i can recall! I've seen plenty of weird colors in iridescence, not necessarily in 'spectral order', and nothing about it 'defies conventional optics'. When you see such things, make sure you take a photo--makes it easier for us internet met detectives!