APOD: Unusual Red Glow Over Minnesota (2009 Feb 17)

[Chris Peterson]

I think this new entry at atoptics.co.uk settles the discussion for good.

It's a nice image, and clearly shows the same thing as the APOD. But there were a number of other similar images posted during the earlier discussion; I think the question was settled to most people's satisfaction quite a while back, that the image obviously captured sunlit virga.

On a recent flight out of Denver, with the plane heading east at sunset, I saw exactly the same effect- it almost could have been the APOD itself- with rain virga lit by the red, setting sun, and shadow structure caused by areas where the sunlight was blocked by the mountain peaks to the west, or by clouds above the mountains (basically, by crepuscular shadow rays).

[d.molok]

It may be just clouds reflecting the sunrise or sunset. But usual clouds do not reflect like this. Maybe it's something in the air and right in this cloud that makes it reflect the sunrays this way.

Based on what I know about reflections, I think you'd only see a red reflection off of that lake if the red cloud was on the other side of the lake, out the upper right corner of the photo

Yes, the cloud shouldn't be here to be reflected by the lake.