# What kind of rainbow was this? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [October 26, 2007, 10:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-kind-of-rainbow-was-this/424171 "2007-10-26T22:09:38Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![RachelChristine](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/7ab992/32.png) [@RachelChristine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RachelChristine)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2007, 10:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-kind-of-rainbow-was-this/424171/1 "2007-10-26T22:09:38Z")
Yesterday while driving home from work, I saw a gorgeous rainbow in the sky. I could see the whole thing from end to end, and down closer to the ground on both sides it was very bright and clear. I loved it! It stayed in my view for several miles even, since I was driving towards it. (My 2 year old daughter said “Are we chasing it?”) All of the sudden, I noticed a second very faint rainbow a little out from the first. I noticed it looked different, so I started really looking at it. It was much fainter, and I could only see a little bit at the bottom. It was wider than the other rainbow, and here is the weird part – it was reversed! The red was on the bottom working up to the purple on top. Does anyone know what it would do this mirror image type of thing? ---
**Author:** ![Xema](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/9de053/32.png) [@Xema](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Xema)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2007, 10:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-kind-of-rainbow-was-this/424171/2 "2007-10-26T22:16:52Z")
It’s known as a secondary rainbow. Wiki has an [article](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rainbow) with a decent explanation. [Quote=Wiki] Occasionally, a second, dimmer, and thicker secondary rainbow is seen outside the primary bow. Secondary rainbows are caused by a double reflection of sunlight inside the raindrops, and appear at an angle of 50°–53°. As a result of the second reflection, the colours of a secondary rainbow are inverted compared to the primary bow, with blue on the outside and red on the inside. [/Quote] ---
**Author:** ![garygnu](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/garygnu/32/2924_2.png) [@garygnu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/garygnu)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2007, 10:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-kind-of-rainbow-was-this/424171/3 "2007-10-26T22:18:03Z")
[Double Rainbow](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Double_rainbow#Variations) The other day I saw a supernumerary (aka repeating) rainbow, which I had n’t seen in a while. ---
**Author:** ![Squink](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b5e925/32.png) [@Squink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Squink)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2007, 10:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-kind-of-rainbow-was-this/424171/4 "2007-10-26T22:31:46Z")
[QUOTE=garygnu] The other day I saw a supernumerary (aka repeating) rainbow, which I had n’t seen in a while. [/QUOTE] A couple weeks ago, during a morning sunshower in Oregon, I saw a rainbow with 3 additional supernumerary arcs. I didn’t know they could have that many. ---
**Author:** ![RachelChristine](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/7ab992/32.png) [@RachelChristine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RachelChristine)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2007, 1:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-kind-of-rainbow-was-this/424171/5 "2007-10-27T01:58:51Z")
Wow! Thanks. I had never heard of the colors being reversed like that. I’ve seen double rainbows before, but I guess I’ve never noticed the colors. I even called a friend of mine who is into science-y things, and she hadn’t heard of it. Thanks! ---
**Author:** ![Mirasol](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b5e925/32.png) [@Mirasol](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mirasol)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2007, 5:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-kind-of-rainbow-was-this/424171/6 "2007-10-27T05:17:24Z")
More than you probably ever wanted to know about rainbows, halos, and atmospheric optics: > **[Atmospheric Optics](https://atoptics.co.uk/)** > > Learn about atmospheric light phenomena and how rainbows, halos, glories, coronas and more are formed. ---
**Author:** ![kaylasdad99](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kaylasdad99/32/3398_2.png) [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2007, 9:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-kind-of-rainbow-was-this/424171/7 "2007-10-27T21:12:50Z")
The years I spent in Hawaii were very fertile for double rainbows. I’ve only seen a few of them on the mainland. ---
**Author:** ![Colophon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f05b48/32.png) [@Colophon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colophon)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2007, 5:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-kind-of-rainbow-was-this/424171/8 "2007-10-28T17:25:08Z")
Most rainbows I see here in the UK seem to be doubles. It’s only the faint ones that tend to be singles. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2007, 10:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-kind-of-rainbow-was-this/424171/9 "2007-10-28T22:38:27Z")
Another interesting feature about primary and secondary rainbows – the space between them is darker than the surrounding sky. If you see the rainbows against a dark background (dark clouds, or a mountain) this can be very dramatic. This was first remarked upon by Alexander of Aphrodisias betwen 100-200 AD, and is known as “Alexander’s Dark Band” No joke, although you can try your hand at a joke about “Alexander’s Ragtime Band”. Everybody does. In addition to Secondary rainbows, there are Tertiary, Quarternary, etc. rainbows. They are essentially never seenn in nature, because a.) They’re pretty weak and b.) they’re nowhere near the primary and secondary rainbows – they’re pretty close to the sun. The first tertiary rainbow to be observed was probably the one created in a laboratory by al Farisi and al Shirazi in Persia circa 1400. Jearl D. Walker once published a paper in the American Journal of Physics that showed a “Rainbow Rose” with something like the first 20 orders of rainbows, along with the order of the colors and their widths It was printed in color, of course, which is pretty rare for AJP. There’s no way you’d see most of these in nature, or even the laboratory 9without really working at it), but it’s cool nonetheless.