Double rainbows are caused by light being reflected twice inside the raindrop. As a result of this second reflection, the spectrum of the secondary rainbow is reversed: red is on the inner section of the arch, while violet is on the outside.
Light can be reflected from many angles inside the raindrop. A rainbow's "order" is its reflective number. (Primary rainbows are first-order rainbows, while secondary rainbows are second-order rainbows.) Higher-order rainbows appear to viewers facing both toward and away from the sun.
A reflected rainbow appears directly on the surface of a body of water. A reflected rainbow is created by rays of light reflected by the water surface, after the rays have have passed through water droplets. Reflected rainbows to not appear to form a circle with a primary rainbow, although their endpoints seem to meet in an almond-shaped formation.
Because the water droplets in fog are much smaller than raindrops, fogbows have much fainter colors than rainbows. In fact, some fogbows have few detectable colors at all and appear mostly white, with a reddish tinge on their outer edge and a bluish tinge on their inner edge.
The moon itself does not emit light, of course. Moonlight is reflected sunlight, as well as some starlight and "Earthlight." Because moonlight is so much fainter than sunlight, moonbows are dimmer than rainbows.
Rainbows are part of the myths of many cultures around the world. Rainbows are often portrayed as bridges between people and supernatural beings. In Norse mythology, for instance, a rainbow called the Bifrost connects Earth with Asgard, where the gods live. In the ancient beliefs of Japan and Gabon, rainbows were the bridges that human ancestors took to descend to the planet.
Sometimes, however, rainbows are negative symbols. In parts of Burma, for instance, rainbows are considered demons that threaten children. Tribes throughout the Amazon Basin associate rainbows with disease.
Rainbows Near and Far
Some scientists think rainbows also exist on Titan, one of the moons of the planet Saturn. Titan has a wet surface and humid clouds. The sun is also visible from Titan, so it has all the ingredients for rainbows.
When light refracts through a water droplet, the result is a rainbow. It's a process that's easily explained by science, yet it feels so magical when you see one in person. Here are 10 places around the world where you're most likely to see rainbows.
Hawaii is known as the 'Rainbow State,' so you're guaranteed to see stunning rainbows across the chain of islands. Kauai is a particularly rainy island and is home to Mount Waialeale, one of the wettest spots on earth. Because of that, rainbows can be spotted frequently.
Jasper National Park in Alberta is no stranger to being the focus of gorgeous photo ops. It's full of mountains, forests, picturesque lakes and waterfalls. And where there's water, there are rainbows. Seeing one over the Canadian Rockies is a totally unique experience.
Lake Neusiedl, just an hour's drive from Vienna in Austria, is a UNESCO World Heritage site known as the "Sea of the Viennese." The lake is a draw for tourists hoping to see protected wildlife, go windsurfing or spot some rainbows.
Comprised of 275 individual falls, Iguaza Falls on the Argentina-Brazil border is the largest waterfall system in the world. It's three times as wide and twice as tall as Niagara Falls, and it's famous for the hundreds of rainbows it generates. An especially colorful time to visit is during the dry season, April through June.
The famous Victoria Falls is another location where you can spot the rare lunar rainbow. If you visit during the months of April, May, June or July, that's when you're most likely to see one. However, the largest waterfall in the world is just as lively during the day, generating rainbows on rainbows.
The misty emerald landscapes of Ireland create the perfect conditions for rainbows. But it's not just the weather that makes for prime rainbow spotting: it's the location. According to the Hartford Courant, Ireland's latitude deserves some of the credit, since it contributes to a weather pattern of broken precipitation. Since the sun can come out between showers, you're more likely to see rainbows.
"It's one of those light and dark days", the child remarks, staring at the cloudy sky. "Light and dark days" is a kind of family term we use to describe weather like we've had lately, a childlike appreciation of the way the sky is bright and dark with clouds at the same time. Those days when the sun shines while rain is falling, a place where rainbows are born, and mud puddles reflect the sky, and it's difficult to decide whether to pull on a hat or take off a sweatshirt. Light and dark days, the dizzy buzz of spring flowers and the gathering clouds. There's an edge in these days, a chill that makes us stoke the fire in the wood stove, or drives us outside to work or walk or wander through the garden, making mental lists of all that is to be done, or even, gasp, completing the tasks themselves. There's mulch to be spread, sealing the moisture of the recent rains in the soil. There's weeds to pull, and invasive grasses, piled in berms to decompose in situ. Too late now to prevent the seeds of many weeds from setting; the best we can do is to concentrate the seeds in one area, and hope to pull them sooner next year. Bachelor buttons that reseeded last year are opening their first flowers, and the scabiosa, somewhere between weed and wanted, is popping up in drifts throughout the garden. The black ones (well, really they are a rich maroon) are especially prized. An entirely accidental vignette delighted the eye last week in the garden; bright blue of bachelor buttons and borage and salvia sagitatta, a peachy alstromeria and peachier salvia greggii, all interwoven with a gray, ferny artemesia, and dark pops of the reseeded black scabiosa: a perfect spring palate. Once we pulled the grasses out from between the young plants, the effect was especially striking. Colors good enough to eat, but these are a feast for the eye alone, except that sometimes we sprinkle the blue cucumber-tasting flowers of borage on salads or in cocktails, just for fun.
We're all about eating colors lately, noticing that the recipes we have chosen are rich in colors and antioxidants lately. This week's featured recipe is no exception to this new springtime rule; the fermented radishes are gorgeous and bright when they are first submerged in brine, but as they ferment, their pigment permeates the brine and even the center of the radish, so that the whole jar is eventually a pale rose color, like an unopened bud of some intricate David Austin cultivar. We love to remind our gut and our palate of possibilities; the world is made up of such a diversity of flavor and color, it seems bizarre, sometimes, how much white flour and dairy the average American consumes, while a riot of nuance and nutrition is glowing and growing, right out of the surface of the earth. To be fair, sourdough toast is undoubtably a comfort food par excellence, but there are other fish in the culinary sea, so to speak...we're enjoying the last of the mâche from the garden, and of course the rainbow of chard and kale, and the bright fat scimitars of peas, and the collage of lettuce leaf shapes, textures, and colors. If only roses tasted as sweet as they smell! The roses are just beginning to hint at the overwhelming abundance of blooms that early summer brings.
Down at the nursery, at the Feed and Farm, we are drinking in rainbows, too. Not just the ones that arched over the redwoods in a break between drizzle and sun, but the blooming plants of every color that line the nursery shelves, and the bright pottery that complements them, too; the place is looking fresh and springy and lively with new deliveries. It's a great time of year to get plants in the ground, while the weather is mild, and the angle of the sun is not too steep. It's also a great time to repot houseplants and other pot-bound beauties, to set them up for a summer of growth in nutritious soil. I like to reward myself for spring cleaning with some new pots for the houseplants (OK, OK, and maybe some new plants, too).
Bringing the rainbows inside, on these light and dark days, while a fire burns in the wood stove, while the sun shines and the rain falls and the world is green and full of possibility.
In 1899 two women from very different backgrounds are about to embark on a journey together - one that will take them from the Old World to the New, from the 19th century into the 20th, and from the comfort and familiarity of England to the rigors of Western Canada, where challenges await at every turn. The journey begins simply for Kicker Stuart when she leaves her home village to take employment as hostler and farrier at Grindleshire Academy for Young Ladies. But when Kicker falls in love with a teacher, Madelyn Bristow, it radically alters the course of her tranquil life.
Keara Michaels doesn't want to leave her family in Ireland, but fate sends her first to Lancashire, then across the sea to Australia, pregnant and penniless. And Theo Mullane, the man who loves her, is married, with an ailing baby son, so cannot follow her as he longs to. Mark Gibson leaves Lancashire to avoid marriage. But gold prospecting is a dangerous pursuit, and when his gentle young wife dies in childbirth, his father-in-law kidnaps the baby. So Mark runs away again, this time to Western Australia, where he employs Keara in his country inn.
Set in 1920s London, this is the inspiring story of Kate Goss' struggle against poverty, hunger and cruel family secrets. Her mother died in a fall, her father has vanished without trace, and now her aunt and cousins treat her viciously. In a freezing, vermin-infested garret, factory girl Kate has only her own brave spirit and dreams of finding her father to keep her going. She has barely enough money to feed herself, or to pay the rent. The factory where she works begins to lay off people and it isn't long before she has fallen into the hands of the violent local money-lender.
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