Rainbow

Sometimes you can see a fainter, second rainbow appear above a rainbow. This happens when sunlight is reflected twice inside each water droplet and directed back to you.

What Causes a Rainbow?

A rainbow is caused by sunlight and atmospheric conditions. Light enters a water droplet, slowing down and bending as it goes from air to denser water. The light reflects off the inside of the droplet, separating into its component wavelengths—or colors. When light exits the droplet, it makes a rainbow.

Rainbow at Suuroy, Faroese Islands. Photo by Erik Christensen.

A rainbow isn’t really a “thing” and it doesn’t exist in a particular “place.” It is an optical phenomenon that appears when sunlight and atmospheric conditions are just right—and the viewer’s position is just right to see it.

Rainbow

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The Colors of the Rainbow

This means each water droplet reflects all of the colors of the sunlight back to you. However, because it reflects and refracts each color at a slightly different angle, only one color from each droplet reaches your eyes. For example, you can only see the red light from droplets that are higher in the sky, and only the orange light from the droplets that are a little lower.

This is how the top two stripes of the rainbow—red and orange—form. Further below, the droplets form an even sharper angle between you and the Sun, so they throw the yellow, green, blue, indigo, and violet components of the sunlight back at you, creating the remaining stripes of the rainbow.

Memorize the Color Sequence

If you are having trouble remembering the order of the rainbow colors, simply memorize the name Roy G. Biv. This imaginary first, middle, and last name is an acronym made up of the initial letter of each color, in the order they appear in a rainbow. From top to bottom, they are: red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, and violet.

Rainbow

This endangered mandrill (Mandrillus sphinx) was photographed by National Geographic Photographer Joel Sartore on Bioko Island, Equatorial Guinea, in his ambitious project to document every species in captivity—inspiring people not just to care, but also to help protect these animals for future generations. Before drills disappear, like this webpage has, learn how you can help at nationalgeographic.org/projects/photo-ark/.

National Geographic Headquarters
1145 17th Street NW
Washington, DC 20036

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Rainbow

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Источники:

https://scijinks.gov/rainbow/&rut=b36b58bf998ba746af38c0d2b54a992f0827728a4de911ffe3e970fd5411492b
https://www.britannica.com/science/rainbow-atmospheric-phenomenon&rut=a6bb22f8ce6f68f2414f7aa0334edaeaed286d3bb8ee5ff95389692923b912da
https://www.timeanddate.com/astronomy/rainbow.html&rut=d99b4b5022cbcccf52164e51361143dde9a452147cd17ff2c2a5e0a3665d8449
https://www.nationalgeographic.org/encyclopedia/rainbow/&rut=8f2202900860a5b9f5172bcc48a24d0c3ffcb3d2ebf8defea0d252acab7b2a24
https://scied.ucar.edu/kids/sky-wonders/rainbows&rut=a0f4275fa7e04f93bdce1d95e031e2afe63a113794d415298782a9dd654f9b59
https://ownyourweather.com/rainbow-facts/&rut=7a55ef3757bb7e50aa6040b6dee552f9e788e63eaba61105f00dce59bee458b4