Incredibly beautiful double rainbows (20 pictures)
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.
In a “primary rainbow”, the arc shows red on the outer part and violet on the inner side. This rainbow is caused by light being refracted while entering a droplet of water, then reflected inside on the back of the droplet and refracted again when leaving it.
In a double rainbow, 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]
“And when it rains on your parade, look up rather than down. Without the rain, there would be no rainbow,” ~ quote by Gilbert K. Chesterton. Photo by David DeHetre
Double rainbow over Embudo Valley. Photo by Mike Lewinski
Burning Man: “This was one of the greatest moments of my life.” Photo by Barry M
“Sigh, this is a supernumerary rainbow but the second one was pretty faint even with my HDR tinkering,” wrote the photographer. Photo by cloudzilla
Amazingly bright double rainbow in Costa Rica. Photo by Orin
The photographer wrote, “A double rainbow on the 4th of July? How awesome is this?” Recall that seeing the second rainbow phenomenon can be difficult? “We just got the edge of a storm that came through and I happened to go outside and saw this rainbow. Then when I was editing it, I noticed the double rainbow. The only way I could show the second rainbow was to lower the exposure which made me do a HDR process.” Photo by Nicholas Erwin
Red Thunderstorm Rainbow over Canim Lake. Life isn’t about waiting for the storm to pass; it’s learning to dance in the rain. Photo by Brigitte Werner
Johann Gottfried Von Herder said, ~ “Without inspiration the best powers of the mind remain dormant. There is a fuel in us which needs to be ignited with sparks.” Photo by Madrax
Judy Garland once said, “I’ve always taken ‘The Wizard of Oz’ very seriously, you know. I believe in the idea of the rainbow. And I’ve spent my entire life trying to get over it.” Photo by Hai Linh Truong
“The way I see it, if you want the rainbow, you gotta put up with the rain,” ~ by Dolly Parton. Photo by Patrick Emerson
The photographer wrote, “Just as we reached the saddle of Stac Polaidh we were rewarded with the best rainbow(s) I have ever seen. Looking north across Loch Sionascaig to Suilven. Cul Mor and Cul Beag to the right.” Photo by David Ian Roberts
“Be thou the rainbow in the storms of life. The evening beam that smiles the clouds away, and tints tomorrow with prophetic ray,” ~ quote by Lord Bryon. Photo by Nicholas A. Tonelli
Double rainbow over the London Eye. Accuweather wrote, “Nature’s natural color spectrum always elicits the same pattern (red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, violet) when light is refracted. While a primary rainbow is visible when light is reflected once off the back of a raindrop, a secondary and usually dimmer rainbow is spotted when light is reflected twice in a more complicated pattern. The colors of the second rainbow are inverted, with blue on the outside and red moved to the inside. The second bow appears dimmer or cloudier because much more light is released from two reflections, and both bows cover a larger portion of the sky. It is rare and unlikely, but three or even four rainbows can be seen on occasion, but only if they are reflected off of the earthly objects.” Photo by Trey Ratcliff
Double rainbow over Burning Man. You know about the pot of gold that Irish folklore says is at the end of a rainbow, but in Navajo and Hindu cultures, rainbows are interpretations of creation. In Australian Aborigines myths, the Rainbow Serpent is the god and the creator of all. Did you see The Avengers film? The Bifröst Rainbow Bridge connects Earth with Asgard, the home of the Norse mythology gods. The Greek messenger Iris was said to travel on a rainbow. Everybody and their dog has seen rainbows in all kinds of marketing. The real thing is pretty incredible to behold. Photo by John curley
Double rainbow over the Merse, Scotland. After the great flood and Noah’s famous Ark, came a rainbow that God said is His promise never to flood and destroy the entire earth again. But rainbows are so spectacular, that these multicolored arcs are woven into all kinds of legends, folklore, mythology and religions. Photo by Neal Fowler
Double rainbow during a stormy Cancun afternoon. “Dare to love yourself as if you were a rainbow with gold at both ends,” wrote Aberjhani in The River of Winged Dreams. Photo by purolipan
“Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take, but by the moments that take our breath away,” ~ written by an unknown Canadian man as a greeting card quote for Carleton Cards in the mid 1970′s. Photo by Steve Wall
No matter what language you speak, seeing a rainbow, any rainbow, is a stunning sight to behold. This one was seen over Lake Väimela Alajärv, in Võru County, Estonia. Seeing a double rainbow is double the pleasure, but some people claim that the double rainbow phenomenon is not as rare as most folks believe. Sometimes there is a second rainbow, but it is so dim that we simply miss it. You can make out the faint shape of the second rainbow in the top right of this photo. Photo by Vaido Otsar
Double rainbow over Garden of the Gods in Colorado Springs, CO. Did you know there really isn’t an “end” to a rainbow? Maybe that’s why finding a pot of gold is as hard as spotting a tricky leprechaun. If you stood at where I can see the “proverbial” end of the rainbow, then that rainbow would appear to you to be in a different spot. It’s one of nature’s very best optical “illusion” tricks. Experiencing the phenomenon depends upon where you are standing, where the sun is and where the moisture is just right in the air. Rainbows, especially double rainbows, are considered a positive, awe-inspiring sign in most cultures. Photo by Raymond Larose