June 8, 2014 at 6:02 pm

Picture of the Day: A Perfect Rainbow Over New York

by twistedsifter

 

A PERFECT RAINBOW OVER NEW YORK

 

perfect rainbow over new york Picture of the Day: A Perfect Rainbow Over New York

Photograph by cbarney on reddit

 

Seen here is a beautiful rainbow over New York as seen from Midtown West, Manhattan. The photo was taken by reddit user cbarney from her balcony with her iPhone early last month.

A rainbow is an optical and meteorological phenomenon that is caused by reflection of light in water droplets in the Earth’s atmosphere, resulting in a spectrum of light appearing in the sky. It takes the form of a multicoloured arc. Rainbows caused by sunlight always appear in the section of sky directly opposite the sun. [source]

In a double rainbow, which you can see faintly here, a second arc is seen outside the primary arc, and has the order of its colours reversed, red facing toward the other one, in both rainbows. This second rainbow is caused by light reflecting twice inside water droplets. [source]

If you’re a fan of rainbows, you can find more great pics of them here.

 

 

picture of the day button Picture of the Day: A Perfect Rainbow Over New York