While they may not know the name, most cloudspotters will be more than familiar with crepuscular rays. These optical effects, caused by the shadows of clouds, are the familiar beams of sunlight that appear to shine down from a hole in a layer of Stratocumulus or burst out in dramatic fashion from behind a Cumulus, as is the case in January’s The Cloud of the Month, above.

Crepuscular rays appear when the path of sunlight is made visible by atmospheric water droplets too scarce to appear as cloud, but plentiful enough to noticeably scatter the light. Like fingers through a torch beam in a smoky room, the shadows caused by the clouds provide edges to the path of the light, making the rays appear as sunbeams. These rays seem to radiate outwards from behind the cloud, in spite of the fact that they are actually almost parallel. Like like railway tracks approaching from the horizon, the effect is due to perspective.

The rays that form when the Sun is high in the sky often look like they are pointing downwards, especially when they break through a hole in a cloud layer (see here, for example). But when the Sun is low on the horizon, they invariably point upwards. They look like the fingers of a hand outstretched, waving to the day that is departing, or welcoming the one that’s just arrived.
 

Current Cloud of the Month:
‘Asperatus’ (June 09)

Previous Clouds of the Month:
Clouds at Night (May 09)
Sundogs (April 09)
Diamond Dust (March 09)
Cloud Streets (February 09)
Crepuscular Rays (Jan 09)
Valley Fog (December 08)
Cloud Shadows (November 08)
Contrails (October 08)
Mamma (September 08)
Kármán Vortex (August 08)
The Summertime Halo (July 08)
The Nor’west Arch (June 08)
Microbursts (May 08)
Irridescent Clouds (April 08)
Northern Lights – Aurora Borealis (March 08)
Ice halos (February 08)
Lightning (January 08)
Roll Cloud (December 07)
Banner Cloud (November 07)
Stratocumulus (October 07)
The Unclassified Cloud (September 07)
Alexander’s Dark Band (August 07)
Fumulus Snail (July 07)
Distrail (June 07)
Altocumulus undulatus (May 07)
Cumulonimbus capillatus (April 07)
Lacunosus (March 07)
Horseshoe Vortex Cloud (February 07)
Jet-Stream Cirrus (Janurary 07)
Altostratus/Altocumulus/Altowhateveritis (December 06)
Anti-Crepuscular Rays (November 06)
Stratocumulus (October 06)
Altocumulus (September ’06)
The Kelvin-Helmholtz Wave Cloud (August ’06)
The ‘Brocken Spectre’ (July ’06)
‘Whale’s Mouth’ (June ’06)
Noctilucent (May ’06)
Cirrus (April ’06)
Cap Cloud (March ’06)
Fallstreak Holes (February ’06)
Nacreous (January ’06)
Cirrostratus (December ’05)
Tuba (November ’05)
Virga (October ’05)
Cirrocumulus (September ’05)
Altostratus (August ’05)
Cumulus (July ’05)
Mamma (June ’05)
Pileus (May ’05)
Lenticularis (April ’05)


To contribute a Cloud of the Month,
go to our Photograph Submissions page.

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