For background, I was on a tour coming back from Ballestas Islands just off of Peru, around 11:00 a.m., no rain (it’s a desert area), sky was partly cloudy. The phenomenon stayed a couple of minutes. As we progressed, the colours merged to a strand of amber.
Cloud iridescence! . Typical with thin high atmosphere clouds. When very small ice crystals or water droplets form the cloud they can diffract the light from the sun, causing an interference pattern to form. Not entirely dissimilar from an oil slick.
Thanks a bunch. Are they more common in hot countries? Never seen them in Canada.
Am Canadian. Have seen them. It’s more about altitude than lattitude.
Edit: Spend a little bit of every day looking at the sky. Day or night, it’s often magnificent.