#supernumeraries

Low-Arch rainbow This delightfully-shaped rainbow was captured in 2012 over Illinois. The shape and distance to a rainbow depends on the angle of the sun and the horizon; when the sun is about 40 degrees above the horizon, a rainbow in the opposite direction will flatten out, forming almost a horizontal band. If the sun is any higher in the sky, then a rainbow won't be visible because it would actually be located below the horizon

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Salome (2017)

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Supernumary rainbows

The extra rainbow fringes (aka stacker rainbow) in the photo are a rare optical phenomenon, formed by smaller drops than the ones that form the main bow. The effect is caused by interference, rather like the sets of waves you get when you chuck two rocks into a pond a yard or so apart. Some places go quiet, others have double sized waves. In the quiet areas, the waves have cancelled each other out, arriving together just out of phase enough to do so, a phenomenon known as destructive interference. In the areas with double sized waves they have arrived together, and joined their energies in constructive interference thus moving the medium through which they pass more.

With the light shining through the water drops to produce these magnificent arches it's a similar story. The diffraction off the smaller drops produces waves of constructive and destructive interference, resulting in the coloured and dark areas in the supernumaries. They only become visible in the measure that the tiny droplets are as uniform in size as possible. These beautiful fringes can change swiftly as conditions change in the air and were the first observed indication of the wave nature of light...They say that clouds are physics writ into the sky, and so are rainbows in all their varied guises. All we ever see is light dancing with matter.

Loz

. Image credit: Kurt Fanus

http://www.atoptics.co.uk/rainbows/supers.htm

http://www.weatherscapes.com/album.php…

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