Photograph of Iridescence

The following beautiful photograph of iridescence was taken by the Weather Observer of the Hong Kong Observatory near sunset on 25 June 2004 at the Hong Kong International Airport. Iridescence is a special optical phenomenon that colourful bands or patches are observed in clouds near the sun or moon. The colourful patterns are due to diffraction of light by water droplets of a fairly uniform size in altostratus and altocumulus clouds.

Photograph taken by Mr. T.L. Ng, Weather Observer of the Hong Kong Observatory at the Hong Kong International Airport at 6:49 p.m. on 25 June 2004