Like a fleeting painting of breaking waves composed of light, a field of iridescent clouds stretches high above the rugged peaks of the Canadian Rocky Mountains. Their colors appear as if they were painted with the finest oils in pastel tones—flowing into one another without clear boundaries, while the high dynamics of the rapidly changing clouds create the structures. An icy sky fire in all colors of the spectrum.
Partly delicate and transparent, partly glowing like molten metal, turquoise transitions into purple, which in turn becomes gold. The lines and swirls of thin cloud veils are reminiscent of the structures of cosmic supernova explosions, and for this brief moment, it seemed as if looking into the heart of the Orion Nebula.
This rare spectacle occurs in the upper troposphere, often in foehn conditions, when moist air masses are forced to flow across mountain ridges. As the air rises, it cools, water vapor condenses, and lenticular or wave clouds form. On the leeward side, the air quickly descends again, creating calm, laminar currents at high altitudes. There, tiny water droplets and ice crystals of almost equal size float within thin layers. The corresponding cloud formations are altocumulus lenticularis and cirrocumulus, which form at altitudes between 6 and 12 kilometers (4 to 7 miles).
When sunlight encounters these cloud particles at the right angle, it refracts and interferes in such a way that individual wavelengths in the light spectrum are amplified or extinguished—a physical painting that is only possible with precisely matching particle sizes and a homogeneous distribution of droplets and crystals. The most vivid colors appear when the clouds are optically thin and uniform and the background sky is a deep blue.
Amidst this spectacle of color, a dark eye appeared for less than a minute—a dense cloud zone that absorbed the sunlight. This enigmatic eye created a fascinating contrast and enhanced the depth of the celestial display of color.
How might such natural phenomena have appeared to the First Nations? What we now understand as an explainable interplay of ice crystal formation, light refraction, and high-altitude air circulation may have been a call to ritual and ceremony for them, an icy celestial fire as a message from an otherworld—a fleeting bridge between earth, sky, and people.