Clouds identified in Edvard Munch's iconic 'Scream' painting

Doyle Rice | USA TODAY

Show Caption Hide Caption Science may have solved the mystery behind 'The Scream' A new study suggests a beautiful natural phenomenon inspired Norwegian artist Edvard Munch.

One of the most famous paintings in the world, Edvard Munch's iconic "The Scream," has haunted art enthusiasts and the general public for more than a century.

Now, the weird, wavy clouds at the top of the famed artwork have been identified as nacreous, or "mother-of-pearl," clouds, a new study suggests.

Nacreous clouds – also called polar stratospheric clouds – are rare, according to Atmospheric Optics. They are typically seen within two hours after sunset or before dawn when they blaze unbelievably bright, with vivid and slowly shifting iridescent colors.

They are much higher up in the sky than the more familiar cumulus or stratus clouds, according to NASA. Nacreous clouds form in the stratosphere, at 70,000 feet or above – more than twice as high as commercial airliners fly.

Munch’s inspiration may have been from a sighting of these clouds, which can be seen from southern Norway during the winter months, according to the study published in the Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society.

"We show that the colors and patterns of the sky in Munch’s painting match the sunset colors better if nacreous clouds are present," the study said. "Their sudden appearance around and after sunset creates an impressive and dramatic effect."

Study co-author Alan Robock of Rutgers University said “what’s screaming is the sky, and the person in the painting is putting his or her hands over their ears so they can’t hear the scream. If you read what Munch wrote, the sky was screaming blood and fire.”

Robock and other experts also have proposed that a volcanic sunset colored by the 1883 Krakatoa eruption in the Dutch East Indies inspired the painting, and he still believes that’s possible.

“We don’t know if Munch painted exactly what he saw,” Robock said. “He could have been influenced by the Krakatoa sunset and nacreous clouds and combined them.”

If the new analysis is correct, Munch’s art would be one of the earliest visual documentations of nacreous clouds, the study said.

"The Scream" sold for a record $119.9 million in 2012.