I like the idea of using the IR, where it shows a greater degree of contrast, to act as a "contrast mask" on the visible light image.
I'm thinking of the beautiful cloud detail in the one IR shot where the visible light photo had lost all of that. Seems like some compositing (sort of like HDR) you could try to pull in the best of both worlds.
For contrast specifically, you can get much of that effect with a red filter. Just removing the majority blue/green components already changes the lighting massively. Can add a polarising filter too for an even more extreme effect on the sky.
I'm thinking of the beautiful cloud detail in the one IR shot where the visible light photo had lost all of that. Seems like some compositing (sort of like HDR) you could try to pull in the best of both worlds.