That is why, from an airplane in flight, a rainbow will appear as a complete circle with the shadow of the airplane in
the center. The bow is divided into bands displaying the different colors of the spectrum and is formed by the
refraction and reflection of the sun's rays in drops of rain. Reflection is simply the return of light waves from
the raindrop's surface. Light which appears to be white, is really made up of a mixture of red, orange, yellow, green,
blue, and violet light. When a shaft of sunlight enters a drop of water, a part of it does not pass directly through
but is reflected from the inner surface and emerges from the side from which it entered. Moreover, it is refracted
both on entering and leaving the water drop. This process, repeated in the same manner for an immense number of drops,
produces the primary rainbow, which appears in front of the observer, who has his back to the sun. It has the red band
on the outer edge which are long light waves and the blue-to-violet on the inner edge which are short light waves.
Another larger bow is often seem outside the primary rainbow and parallel to it. This secondary rainbow is produced
in a similar way, but the sun's light is reflected twice before emerging from the raindrop. For this reason, the
color sequence is reversed; red is on the inside edge. And because there is a loss of light with each reflection,
it is not as bright as the primary rainbow. The region between the two bows is comparatively dark, for it lacks
entirely both the once and the twice reflected rays.
Rainbow in Puerto Rico, Gran Canaria 7th February 2005
