A double rainbow features reversed colors in the outer (secondary) bow,
with the dark Alexander's band between the bows.
"Lately, so many rainbows have popped up around Dublin, Ireland, locals have coined a new phrase: "We call it rainbow pollution," laughs Brian Nitz. After a recent thundershower, Nitz photographed a bright double rainbow. In one exposure, he used an infra-red filter. In another exposure, he didn't. The resulting blink comparison shows the rainbow in visible vs. infrared light. Note how the infra-red 'bows are closer together than the visible bows. Also, the infrared arcs fit neatly inside their visible counterparts. This happens because the wavelength of infrared light is longer than the wavelength of visible light. Rainbows are formed by light reflecting inside raindrops. Different wavelengths mean different angles of reflection--and different-sized rainbows."
Double Rainbows
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From Spaceweather.com
On June 28, 2006, Julie Juratic took the picture as a thunderstorm was winding down over the Cuyahoga Valley National Park in Ohio A peaceful rainbow split is down the middle by a bolt of lightning. Although we seldom see them together, rainbows and lightning are related. Both are created by rain. Raindrops make rainbows by catching the rays of the sun and spreading them into their underlying colors. Raindrops make lightning by rubbing against ice crystals in thunderclouds. Like socks rubbing against carpet, raindrops rubbing against ice crystals create an electrical charge and -- zap-- lightning.
When a rainbow formed in the sky people stopped and stared at the natural wonder. But then lightning sparked across the evening panorama as two of nature's most spectacular phenomenon created an unusual alliance. The clash of weather was seen above the affluent city of Fort Smith, in the Southern state Arkansas.O ne onlooker said, "It was awe inspiring. The lightning made a huge rumbling sound and when you looked up there was also this incredible rainbow forming on the horizon." The intracloud lightning, known as an anvil crawler, is the most common form of lightning, with the electrical charge contained within a single cumulonimbus cloud.
Lightning often occurs during heavy storms while rainbows are generally formed after the rain has stopped, making an appearance of both simultaneously relatively rare. The actual electric charge in a flash of lightning comes from particles from the sun sent out in the solar wind which gather in the outer atmospheric layers before creating a strike. Scientists are still divided by what actually causes lightning, with one theory suggesting falling droplets of ice and rain become electrically polarised as they fall through the natural electric field in the Earth's atmosphere. This would explain why lightning often accompanies storms and heavy rain. The same droplets also cause the rainbow, when light from the sun is refracted by the water to cause a spectrum.
Solar Halos Google Images
This is a photo of Tibetan Buddhist monk, the Ven. K. C. Ayang Rinpoche, blessing the deer in Kyoto's Nara Park, July 26th, 1985. He only asked once for a photo of him to be taken, saying, "Take a photo now!" No one saw the rainbow until the print was developed. Rinpoche, on seeing the photograph, said he felt that his prayer blessing of the deer had been answered by the Buddha Amitabha at the very moment the photo was taken, when he had made contact with the deer, and that the power of His blessing appeared in rainbow form.
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