# Could We Colorize Clouds **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [July 13, 2014, 3:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-we-colorize-clouds/692970 "2014-07-13T03:10:16Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 19\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Jonathan\_Chance](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jonathan_chance/32/701_2.png) [@Jonathan\_Chance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jonathan_Chance)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2014, 3:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-we-colorize-clouds/692970/1 "2014-07-13T03:10:16Z")
So, my 14-year-old, Kate poised this question: “Could we, using cloud seeding technique, change the color of clouds?” Damn fine question, says I. I knows who to ask. So could we hit clouds with some sort of particulates that would make them blue or green or whatever? Quote Kate, “If we could, why WOULDN’T we?” Bonus round: Would it change the color of any precipitation, should such occur? ---
**Author:** ![scoots](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b77776/32.png) [@scoots](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scoots)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2014, 3:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-we-colorize-clouds/692970/2 "2014-07-13T03:34:31Z")
It is indeed a great question but I think the answer is no - something to do with the wavelength of light going through water molecules will always make clouds seem white/gray to us. I found this site which asks the same question and has an answer which sounds reasonable: [http://littleshop.physics.colostate.edu/tenthings/Why%20are%20clouds%20white.pdf](http://littleshop.physics.colostate.edu/tenthings/Why%20are%20clouds%20white.pdf) > [@](#): > > Summing Up > Clouds appear white because of scattering. The droplets in clouds are big compared to the wavelength of > light, so all wavelengths scatter the same. It’s a different story for the scattering of light from molecules of > air in the atmosphere. These are much tinier than the wavelength of light, so blue light scatters much more > than red. So the sky is blue and sunsets are red. > > But clouds are white; they have no color at all, even if the water making them up has color. Clouds can > appear white or gray. In fact, the same cloud can appear white to one person and gray to another. This has > to do with where you are with respect to the cloud. People flying in an airplane may pass over a cloud that > looks quite bright as it scatters the abundant sunlight from above, but an observer on the ground may see > the same cloud as gray, because little sunlight penetrates to the lowest level. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Pig](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/c57346/32.png) [@Little\_Pig](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Pig)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2014, 4:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-we-colorize-clouds/692970/3 "2014-07-13T04:44:59Z")
Let’s be 14 again and assume we could color clouds. What color schemes/patterns would you recommend? ---
**Author:** ![Jonathan\_Chance](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jonathan_chance/32/701_2.png) [@Jonathan\_Chance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jonathan_Chance)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2014, 12:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-we-colorize-clouds/692970/4 "2014-07-13T12:20:35Z")
I adore you all, even while soaking in disappointment. So even if we scatter lightweight pigment the clouds stay white/gray. That bites because - let’s face it - it would be awesome to look up. Ideas posited by Kate: 1. St Patrick’s Day! Green river AND Green clouds in Chicago. 2. Blue clouds. Sky blue clouds. They’d be hiding. 3. Red White and Blue clouds for the fourth of July. But there must be others. And I’m still open to ideas for how to overcome this pesky ‘physics’ thing. ---
**Author:** ![Steken](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e274bd/32.png) [@Steken](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Steken)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2014, 12:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-we-colorize-clouds/692970/5 "2014-07-13T12:24:54Z")
> [@Jonathan\_Chance](#): > > 1. St Patrick’s Day! Green river AND Green clouds in Chicago. > 2. Blue clouds. Sky blue clouds. They’d be hiding. > 3. Red White and Blue clouds for the fourth of July. > > But there must be others. And I’m still open to ideas for how to overcome this pesky ‘physics’ thing. 1. Red, white and blue clouds over Oslo on [the 17th of May](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norwegian_Constitution_Day). ---
**Author:** ![JustinC](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/justinc/32/8083_2.png) [@JustinC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JustinC)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2014, 12:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-we-colorize-clouds/692970/6 "2014-07-13T12:31:51Z")
Green sunglasses? ---
**Author:** ![ZenBeam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/3ab097/32.png) [@ZenBeam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZenBeam)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2014, 12:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-we-colorize-clouds/692970/7 "2014-07-13T12:59:09Z")
> [@Jonathan\_Chance](#): > > 1. Blue clouds. Sky blue clouds. They’d be hiding. Maybe they’re already there. How would we know! 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![jtur88](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e9c0ed/32.png) [@jtur88](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jtur88)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2014, 4:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-we-colorize-clouds/692970/8 "2014-07-13T16:21:41Z")
It would take many tons of particulate to make a perceptible change in the color of clouds, and it will all eventually fall out on the ground. I think the really good pigments are made from compounds of heavy metals, which are not cool things to have raining down. (Due to toxicity, not the danger of being clunked on the head by them.) The best things in life are rare, so just wait for a good sunset or sunrise. ---
**Author:** ![bob\_2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bob_2/32/3341_2.png) [@bob\_2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bob_2)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2014, 4:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-we-colorize-clouds/692970/9 "2014-07-13T16:30:13Z")
A powerful searchlight aimed up at them might do it. Or she could make her own: [Technology | Engineering | Innovation - Commercial LED Lighting | Elemental LED](http://www.elementalled.com/academy/blog/diy-led/weekend-lediy-project-led-cloud-lanterns/) I love that kids ask questions like this:) ---
**Author:** ![Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bosda_di_chi_of_tricor/32/16845_2.png) [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2014, 4:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-we-colorize-clouds/692970/10 "2014-07-13T16:40:19Z")
Lasers. Which, arguable, are **already** used for this. ---
**Author:** ![Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bosda_di_chi_of_tricor/32/16845_2.png) [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2014, 4:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-we-colorize-clouds/692970/11 "2014-07-13T16:42:20Z")
> [@bob\_2](#): > > A powerful searchlight aimed up at them might do it. > > Or she could make her own: [Home – Elemental LED](http://www.elementalled.com/academy/blog/diy-led/weekend-lediy-project-led-cloud-lanterns/) > > I love that kids ask questions like this:) Ahem. [http://www.ncc.co.uk/media/bat\_signal.jpg](http://www.ncc.co.uk/media/bat_signal.jpg) ---
**Author:** ![Kent\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kent_clark/32/105_2.png) [@Kent\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kent_Clark)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2014, 5:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-we-colorize-clouds/692970/12 "2014-07-13T17:10:43Z")
You know those trails jetliners leave behind them in the sky? That’s how the gummint will color the clouds. Right now they’re still experimenting with the right dyes to use. They tried food coloring, but that didn’t have enough saturation to make it visible from ground level. Easter egg dye worked better, but it had to be mixed with vinegar, which caused the nozzles to rot out. The search continues. ---
**Author:** ![Absinthe\_Anecdote](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f6c823/32.png) [@Absinthe\_Anecdote](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Absinthe_Anecdote)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2014, 5:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-we-colorize-clouds/692970/13 "2014-07-13T17:33:02Z")
During hailstorms and tornados, I’ve seen clouds take on a greenish hue. > **[Hail](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hail)** > > Hail is a form of solid precipitation. It is distinct from ice pellets (American English "sleet"), though the two are often confused. It consists of balls or irregular lumps of ice, each of which is called a hailstone. Ice pellets generally fall in cold weather, while hail growth is greatly inhibited during low surface temperatures. > Unlike other forms of water ice precipitation, such as graupel (which is made of rime ice), ice pellets (which are smaller and translucent), and snow (which consis... ---
**Author:** ![The\_Second\_Stone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/bbe5ce/32.png) [@The\_Second\_Stone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Second_Stone)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2014, 5:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-we-colorize-clouds/692970/14 "2014-07-13T17:35:37Z")
Color is an interpretation made by the mind. An object absorbs light of various wavelengths (or all in the case of glass) and reflects light of other wavelengths based on how the chemicals in the particular matter react to the electromagnetic spectrum. We see light that isn’t absorbed, it is reflected in wavelengths that are not absorbed. Those wavelengths do not have “color” but do come to our eyes and engage in a similar process of going through our eye lens and hitting the retina and having a reaction when absorbed by the retina. No “color” involved. Our brain assigns color. ---
**Author:** ![jtur88](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e9c0ed/32.png) [@jtur88](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jtur88)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2014, 5:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-we-colorize-clouds/692970/15 "2014-07-13T17:42:40Z")
> [@The\_Second\_Stone](#): > > Color is an interpretation made by the mind. An object absorbs light of various wavelengths (or all in the case of glass) and reflects light of other wavelengths based on how the chemicals in the particular matter react to the electromagnetic spectrum. We see light that isn’t absorbed, it is reflected in wavelengths that are not absorbed. Those wavelengths do not have “color” but do come to our eyes and engage in a similar process of going through our eye lens and hitting the retina and having a reaction when absorbed by the retina. No “color” involved. Our brain assigns color. But we have pretty well mastered the technique of making people’s brains assign color. Like stop signs. Which convincingly pushes the idea of color into man-made territory. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2014, 5:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-we-colorize-clouds/692970/16 "2014-07-13T17:49:35Z")
You could “color” clouds, as noted, by illuminating them with colored light. This happens naturally at sunrise and sunset, when you can see yellowish, orange, or red clouds. As noted, you could use lasers, or spotlights with colored filters over them. Another natural way clouds are colored is when cirrus clouds, which consist of ice crystals, refract that light. If the crystals asre large venough\*, the light can be prismatically separated at certain angles. Parhelia, zenith arcs, Lowitz Arcs, and lower tangent arcs all produce such interesting “rainbow”-like color separation [https://search.yahoo.com/search;\_ylt=AwrBTzkPt8JTIkYAOz1XNyoA;\_ylc=X1MDMjc2NjY3OQRfcgMyBGJjawM5ZG84MmM5OXMwamM0JTI2YiUzRDMlMjZzJTNEbmsEZnIDeWZwLXQtMjU3BGdwcmlkA0VPYU91ZXd2VHZpZjM0aUNSTGNvaUEEbXRlc3RpZANBRE1SJTNEU01FNTg3JTI2QVNTVCUzREFTU1RDMSUyNkxPQ01MUiUzRFZJUDA0OCUyNlJBTVAlM0RSTVAwMiUyNlVJMDElM0RWSVA0NDQlMjZVTkklM0RSQ0YwNDMlMjZVTkkyJTNEU01FNTAwBG5fcnNsdAMxMARuX3N1Z2cDNARvcmlnaW4Dc2VhcmNoLnlhaG9vLmNvbQRwb3MDMARwcXN0cgMEcHFzdHJsAwRxc3RybAMxMwRxdWVyeQNzdW5kb2cgaW1hZ2VzBHRfc3RtcAMxNDA1MjczMzM0MjQ0BHZ0ZXN0aWQDVklQNDQ0?gprid=EOaOuewvTvif34iCRLcoiA&pvid=NwvWOjk4LjGW4QJiU8BNhADQMjQuMlPCtw\_\_uzwo&p=sundog+images&fr2=sb-top&fr=yfp-t-257](https://search.yahoo.com/search;_ylt=AwrBTzkPt8JTIkYAOz1XNyoA;_ylc=X1MDMjc2NjY3OQRfcgMyBGJjawM5ZG84MmM5OXMwamM0JTI2YiUzRDMlMjZzJTNEbmsEZnIDeWZwLXQtMjU3BGdwcmlkA0VPYU91ZXd2VHZpZjM0aUNSTGNvaUEEbXRlc3RpZANBRE1SJTNEU01FNTg3JTI2QVNTVCUzREFTU1RDMSUyNkxPQ01MUiUzRFZJUDA0OCUyNlJBTVAlM0RSTVAwMiUyNlVJMDElM0RWSVA0NDQlMjZVTkklM0RSQ0YwNDMlMjZVTkkyJTNEU01FNTAwBG5fcnNsdAMxMARuX3N1Z2cDNARvcmlnaW4Dc2VhcmNoLnlhaG9vLmNvbQRwb3MDMARwcXN0cgMEcHFzdHJsAwRxc3RybAMxMwRxdWVyeQNzdW5kb2cgaW1hZ2VzBHRfc3RtcAMxNDA1MjczMzM0MjQ0BHZ0ZXN0aWQDVklQNDQ0?gprid=EOaOuewvTvif34iCRLcoiA&pvid=NwvWOjk4LjGW4QJiU8BNhADQMjQuMlPCtw__uzwo&p=sundog+images&fr2=sb-top&fr=yfp-t-257) As for putting coloring matter into the clouds to do the scattering, I don’t think you could get sufficient absorbtion to color the reflected light. I might be wrong, and would be happy to be proven wrong. a sort of related issue is that if you get enough of the liquid suspended in the air, you can cause unusual ranges of wavelength scatter, producing blue or green moons and suns. This has sometimnes happened after forest fires leave suspended droplets of organic liquids in the air, and is (in part) the origin of the phrase “once in a blue moon” Blue and green moons and suns HAVE been photographed, from time to time. But most photos you’ll find on the internet are photoshopped. I think this one’s got a real picture in it: “Observation of a Blue Sun over New Mexico, USA on 19 April 1991” R. Horvath, G. Mitzig, O. Preining, and R.F. Pueschel Atmospheric Environment 28 (4) 621-630 (1994) ---
**Author:** ![Flywheel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/eb8c5e/32.png) [@Flywheel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Flywheel)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2014, 5:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-we-colorize-clouds/692970/17 "2014-07-13T17:56:49Z")
> [@Little\_Pig](#): > > Let’s be 14 again and assume we could color clouds. What color schemes/patterns would you recommend? Silver lining. ---
**Author:** ![Broomstick](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/broomstick/32/246_2.png) [@Broomstick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Broomstick)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2014, 6:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-we-colorize-clouds/692970/18 "2014-07-13T18:03:31Z")
> [@Little\_Pig](#): > > Let’s be 14 again and assume we could color clouds. What color schemes/patterns would you recommend? If you’re talking 14 year olds it would probably break down by gender. Girls: ponies and unicorns and flowers. Boys: grossly exaggerated human body parts. ---
**Author:** ![Jonathan\_Chance](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jonathan_chance/32/701_2.png) [@Jonathan\_Chance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jonathan_Chance)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2014, 4:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-we-colorize-clouds/692970/19 "2014-07-14T16:10:40Z")
Or, if you were my fourteen year old, pictures of David Tennant in his Doctor Who outfit. That and a lot of black. LOTS of black.