The real appearance of a rainbow is a perfect circle, not an arc or a half circle as we have seen so far. But to be able to see it, we have to be at the right time and place.
In fact, we always see rainbows from the ground. This means, the lower part of the rainbow is blocked from the view of the human eye so that we see it as a half circle.
If we reach the right height, our eyes will be treated to a full spiral rainbow. A stunning example of a spiral rainbow was caught on camera by a construction worker at the Lakhta Center in Saint Petersburg, Russia, named Jakob Owens.
He managed to photograph it from an 87-story skyscraper 462 meters high. Although he could see it in a full circle, he had difficulty capturing the rainbow in its entirety, so the result looked like the following photo. But at least, the photo he captured can give an idea of the original shape of the rainbow.
Must Be On High
The reason we have to be at a very high place to see a full circle rainbow is because to witness it, there has to be a drop of water below the horizon that we can observe. That will only happen if we are far from the ground.
"The center of the rainbow is directly opposite the position of the Sun in the sky, so more rainbows are seen when the Sun approaches the horizon," explained the UK Met Office as quoted from IFL Science.
"Therefore, usually we will see the largest percentage of rainbows (50%) when the Sun rises or sets," he continued.
Airplanes are also a good place to see a full spiral rainbow. In fact, the plane was treated to a variety of amazing tricks that featured a light called 'pilot's glory'. This natural attraction can be seen when an optical illusion makes it appear as if the shadow of the plane is lit by a rainbow-colored halo.
The formation of the rainbow
Rainbows occur due to the refraction process. The sun refracts its rays into drops or water and produces beautiful colors that are inseparable.
When the process of refraction of the Sun's rays occurs, the light is deflected and moved from another direction from one medium to another (air to water). Further, each color of the rainbow will be turned at a different angle so that it will give a beautiful color to the rainbow.
The first color to turn is purple, while the last color to turn is red. In the end, our eyes will see a rainbow of red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, and purple or mejikuhibiniu.