March 10, 2016 - IRELAND - A bright full circle rainbow was seen over Northern Ireland on March 7, 2016.
A rainbow is a meteorological phenomenon that is caused by reflection, refraction and dispersion of light in water droplets 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. Rainbows can be full circles; however, the average observer sees only an arc formed by illuminated droplets above the ground, and centred on a line from the sun to the observer's eye.
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 when 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, with red on the inner side of the arc.
WATCH: Full circle rainbow over Ireland.
- YouTube | Wikipedia.
