Rays in the atmosphere *from clouds* (which is I think what you want here) will not be affected by the raytrace settings in the clouds or atmosphere. They will show up whether those settings are enabled or not. Rays in the atmosphere *from terrain shadows*, which are not really visible in this image, would only be possible with raytracing turned on in the atmosphere, but again they are not really visible in this scene so it is probably just adding unnecessary render time, as T-U has mentioned. The same is true for clouds - only shadows cast onto the clouds *from terrain* are affected by the raytrace setting in the clouds.
- Oshyan
