How does a rainbow look from high up in the air? See this

How does a rainbow look from up in the air? This picture going around on social media shows not the usual hazy arc connecting heaven and earth, but a spectacular giant ring of colours.

The video was captured by a skydiver on her camera as she floated down to earth. It shows a big circular rainbow with red on the outside and violet on the inside, which is the normal arrangement of the colours of the spectrum in a rainbow.

Those who look closely can also spot a fainter outer ring with the colours reversed - red and the inside and violet on the outisde - which is the case with secondary rainbow.


So, it's a double circular rainbow that is visible in the 11-second video.

A rainbow is caused by reflection, refraction and dispersion of light in water droplets in the air, resulting in a spectrum of light. They normally appear in the part of the sky directly opposite the Sun.

In the primary rainbow, where the red is the outermost, the light is refracted when entering the water droplets, reflected inside on the back of the droplet, and refracted again when leaving it.

In the secondary rainbow, where the red is the innermost, light is reflected twice on the inside of the droplets before leaving it.

For many who saw this video on social media it was a totally different view of a rainbow from the ones they are used to.

"Are rainbows just giant lens flares??" asked one. "Had no idea it was a ring this whole time. Looks other worldly from that perspective," said another.

Yet another one explained why we see only arc rainbows from the ground:" We're too low down and the horizon is in the way."

Sci-fi fans saw a portal which takes them to another dimension. "I know a space bridge when i see one," commented one.

Others didn't like science getting in the way of a good story. "So there is never going to be a pot of gold? Because it never actually ends," said a user.