is there anything that could cause a rainbow to appear upside down?

Question

no stupid answers like 'looking at it standing on your head' please

Answer 1

Rainbows are strange things... and much more complicated than people realise!

Everybody knows that light strikes a raindrop, and the raindrop acts like a prism and splits the white light into a spectrum of colours. It makes sense. You've done it at school with little glass triangular prisms and got a pretty pattern.

And then thats it. Rainbows explained.

But it isn't. What causes the shape? do millions of raindrops magically align to create the arc? or does one raindrop alone create the rainbow? but raindrops are constantly falling - how is the pattern preserved?

Rainbows are actually completely circular. When you look at a rainbow the sun is always behind you, and the centre of teh rainbow is in front of you on a line connecting the sun and your head. So, the bottom half of the rainbow is always hidden by the earth. The circular shape is to do with the effect of the ligth refrected by millions of near identical sized, spherical raindrops interfering with each other - that is why you typically get rainbows on calm days (to preserve the sphericality) and in light rain/mist (where the drops are a near uniform size.)

That exhausts my rainbow knowledge... and it totally writes of the possibility of what is shown in that picture. So the rest is googled:

Apparently what you are seeing is not a rainbow at all and is a Circumzenithal Arc. These are caused by 'horizontally orientated plate-shaped ice crystals' in the clouds - again you will need uniform crystals and a calm day to get the effect. There is a nice picture of one in the second link below.

Rob

Answer 2

Not the kind with a pot of gold at the end. Rainbows are caused by the reflection and refraction of light within spherical drops of rain or mist. Althouth there are two possible paths for the light (and two possible separate rainbows!) they are both curved the same way intto an arch. BTW if two people at a distance view the same rainbow each view is personal because of differences between the angles of the sun the person and raindrops. Only those standing beside you see exactly what you see. Of course you can make your own rainbow using a hose and fine mist in sunlight and anything is possible as to how the arch is positioned (even a round halo?).

Answer 3

The rainbow is always on the opposite side of the sky from the Sun, so since the Sun is above the horizon, the rainbow cannot appear upside down.

If you somehow get a light reflection from the ground to produce a rainbow then it might appear upside down.

Answer 4

The part of a rainbow we see when normally is the top half of what would be a full circle if there was nothing in the way. You can sometimes see a rainbow as a circle from an airplane looking down, if conditions are right. so if something was blocking the "top" half from your view, then you could see an upside-down one.

Answer 5

it would be something to see a rainbow that is upside down, but to my knowledge there isn't anything that could cause a rainbow to appear upside down in the sky.

Answer 6

In an airplane if the conditions are right (rain in one direction and sun in the other direction), you can actually see a full circle rainbow. I've seen it

Answer 7

I think it's because the atmosphere surrounding the earth and the earth itself is curved---the sun is far away and the light strikes this cunvex surface...if you could have light strike a concave surface it would be opposite.

Answer 8

the angle from which you view it such as on a mountain. They (reversed rainbows) are called glories and not rainbows btw.

Answer 9

A bottle of Bushmills Irish Whiskey.

Answer 10

as i am da best my MUM sez dat the best way is to stand on ur head.... try it it mite make u think u love gingerz.....errrrrrrr ginga minga