Upside-Down Rainbows

Until yesterday, I didn't know this phenomenon was possible: upside-down rainbows. The Telegraph has a photo of one caught on camera by Dr. Jacqueline Mitton near Cambridge last week.

SF Gate has a picture of another one, from a year ago, and offers this explanation:

When sunlight hits the hexagonal ice crystals that sometimes create a thin haze high in the sky, each crystal bends the light and breaks it into all the colors of the rainbow. Combined, the millions of crystals form what atmospheric scientists call a circumzenithal arc, but the band of colors in the arc is reversed from the way it appears in regular rainbows.

Posted By: Alex | Date: Sat Sep 20, 2008 | Comments (3)
Category: Nature, Weather

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All original content in posts is Copyright © 2008 by the author of the post, either Alex Boese ("Alex"), Paul Di Filippo ("Paul"), or Chuck Shepherd ("Chuck"). All rights reserved. The banner illustration at the top of this page is Copyright © 2008 by Rick Altergott.