Further insights into the colours of the natural rainbow at sunset.
Abstract
This paper is an addendum to last year's paper (presented at EGU, Vienna in April 2013) entitled "New insights into the rainbow. The colours of the natural rainbow at sunset". Using a realistic model of rainbow based on the Airy theory, we showed that , at sunset, the orange, the violet, the blue and the green bands disappear completely in this order. And we stated that "At the end, the primary bow is mainly red and slightly yellow." and we displayed outputs from our model "proving" it. However, a picture taken by Claudia Hinz in the Alps proves that purely red rainbows (that is without any yellow band) do exist. Although surprising, this anomaly is not in contradiction with the rainbow model. It can be reproduced and understood. Purely red rainbows should never happen in flat countries: on Claudia's picture, the sun is approximately 0.5-1 degree below the horizon.
- Publication:
-
EGU General Assembly Conference Abstracts
- Pub Date:
- May 2014
- Bibcode:
- 2014EGUGA..1614615R