Overview
- Viral clips from Bogor’s Jonggol area and nearby Bekasi showed vivid iridescent “rainbow clouds,” with some drivers stopping to film the sky.
- Indonesia’s meteorology agency BMKG confirmed the footage shows a natural optical effect called cloud iridescence.
- Meteorologists explain the colors appear when sunlight diffracts through tiny, uniform water droplets or ice crystals in thin clouds near the sun.
- Analysts link the scene to a smooth pileus cap over a rapidly rising storm cloud, which often precedes localized showers rather than a large, dangerous storm.
- Reporters and forecasters debunked claims that the videos were AI-generated, stating they capture a real atmospheric phenomenon.