A breathtaking sight, the secret of which could be revealed.
In April 2015, a severe thunderstorm passed in New York, which painted the sky with rainbow colors - many eyewitnesses immediately rushed to photograph this beauty. At the same time, one of the Twitter users, Amanda Curtis, posted on her page a picture with four separate multi-colored arcs at once. The image scattered across the web became "viral": the so-called quadruple rainbow is a rare natural phenomenon.
Recall that a rainbow appears as a result of the reflection and refraction of sunlight in a multitude of small water droplets suspended in the air: white light is divided into a series of colors from outer red to inner violet. Catching four rainbows from one angle of view at once is possible only under certain conditions: in particular, the sky should be quite dark, and there should be several gaps in the clouds at once. Moreover, each subsequent rainbow looks paler than the previous one. Such a picture can be seen in a picture taken in 2011 in Germany. And in the photo from New York, the arcs are bright enough, and many wondered if this was Photoshop.
Doubt was also raised by the fact that thousands of people witnessed the unusual phenomenon in the largest city in the United States - and only one person presented a photo of four rainbows. Experts, not doubting the authenticity of the photograph, explain: we are talking here only about a double rainbow, re-reflected from the water surface behind the photographer's back. The double rainbow is beautiful, but not uncommon. It happens when there are a lot of droplets in the air, and the light has time to refract again. And with a successful combination of circumstances, it can be "turned" into a quadruple.
Paul Neumann, a meteorologist at the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), says that the surface of the reservoir, like a mirror, reflects the sun and creates a second, additional source of light. It is located as many degrees below the horizon as the sun itself is higher. However, a real rainbow is formed by direct sunlight, so its arches cannot be angled or intersected. And this is exactly what we see in the photograph of Amanda Curtis, draws attention to the American professor of meteorology Raymond Lee. As proof, he cites the fact that the woman took the picture near Hampstead Bay - in ideal conditions for a "reflected rainbow".