The European Space Agency's Sentinel-2 satellite captured that appears to be a Rainbow Contrail, a relatively rare weather phenomenon, in the skies over County Kerry on Tuesday afternoon.
It was yet another overcast day across Ireland during Tuesday.
Only parts of south Kerry managed to get a fleeting glimpse of sunshine this afternoon as these MODIS and Sentinel-2 satellite passovers captured.
A contrail and what appears to be a Rainbow Contrail can be seen near Cahersiveen, the latter however is more likely to be an artefact (an incorrect interpretation of satellite data).
Contrails are a type of 'ice cloud' produced when water vapour generated from the airplane's engines condenses and freezes around dust particles or with the water vapour already present in the air.
Rainbow contrails are produced when the frozen water droplets diffract sunlight in the same direction.
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| Ireland and Britain from space on February 18th 2025. Credit NASA |
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Ireland from Space