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.

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Alex Boese Alex is the creator and curator of the Museum of Hoaxes. He's also the author of various weird, non-fiction, science-themed books such as Elephants on Acid and Psychedelic Apes. Paul Di Filippo Paul has been paid to put weird ideas into fictional form for over forty years, in his career as a noted science fiction writer. Contact Us

Posted By: Alex - Sat Sep 20, 2008
Category: Nature | Weather

Comments

Ya'all think it's about science! I tell you it's those sneaky leprechauns trying out new security arrangements they just made with the people at AWAIL Software.

Posted by Expat47 in Athens, Greece on 09/21/08 at 03:04 AM

No, you idiots. Don't you remember DBootstheDiva and her stunning exposé on the low-level rainbows that appeared in her sprinkler? It's HAARP, I tell you. The government is now turning rainbows upside down for some sinister, unknowable reason.

Posted by kingmonkey in Athens, Ontario on 09/22/08 at 11:43 AM

John Armstrong: I looked at your website and my head exploded. Thanks.

Posted by BikerPuppy on 09/22/08 at 03:33 PM

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