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Claim: Photos show a “fire rainbow” captured in Masbate City on November 14.
Rating: FALSE
Why we fact-checked this: A Facebook user uploaded two images of the atmospheric phenomenon known as a “fire rainbow,” claiming that the photos were taken on November 14 in Masbate.
Multiple Facebook pages and accounts, including a news page, reposted the claim. This drew a significant number of social media engagements, with over 43,600 reactions and 6,200 shares a day after it was shared. Although the post from a news page has since been taken down, the main source of the claim has not yet been removed as of writing.
Numerous reposts continue to circulate on various Facebook pages and accounts. Some of these posts implied that the images may be related to natural disasters, particularly as the photos were posted before Super Typhoon Pepito hit the Philippines, affecting much of Luzon.
The facts: Sightengine, an artificial intelligence (AI) image detection tool, flagged both photos as likely to be AI-generated with a 99% confidence level. Meanwhile, AI detector tool Is it AI? rated the first image as 77% likely to be AI-generated while the second image had a likelihood of 81%.
Contrary to the claim that the “fire rainbow” images were taken in Masbate on November 14, a reverse image search shows that the same photos were already posted on the Facebook page named “Space Academy” on November 4.
In its bio, the Space Academy page stated that some of its images “may be depictions with sole purpose of sparking interest in Space and nature.” Though the page claimed that the photos of “fire rainbows” were “not a painting” and “not photoshopped,” it did not provide any details on when and where the photos were taken.
Rappler has already reached out to the Space Academy page but has not received a response as of writing. Its website, thespaceacademy.org, does not provide any contact information as well.
Atmospheric phenomenon: According to the World Meteorological Organization, the so-called fire rainbow, technically known as a circumhorizontal arc, is caused when the elevation of the sun is at 58° or greater and its light passes through high-altitude cirrus clouds with a high content of ice crystals at a specific angle.
Because the conditions for its formation are precise, a fire rainbow is considered a rare phenomenon. – Lyndee Buenagua/Rappler.com
Lyndee Buenagua is a third year college student and campus journalist from the University of the Philippines Baguio. The former editor-in-chief of Highland 360, a Baguio-based publication, she is also an Aries Rufo Journalism fellow of Rappler for 2024.
Keep us aware of suspicious Facebook pages, groups, accounts, websites, articles, or photos in your network by contacting us at factcheck@rappler.com. Let us battle disinformation one Fact Check at a time.
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