This fascinating spectacle can be seen from certain locations
We are used to seeing rainbows as just that: a bow. And yet they actually come full circle. But, to see them as a circumference, you don’t have to be at ground level, but at a certain height. In reality, all rainbows are circular, but we always see them from the ground. That means that the lower half is hidden from view.
For example, a few years ago, construction workers at the Lakhta Center in Saint Petersburg, Russia, they recorded a stunning example of a full circle rainbow. This 87-story skyscraper has a height of 462 meters, making it the tallest in Europe and the 16th tallest in the world. This fact makes it an ideal vantage point for contemplating a whole rainbow.
The reason you have to be at a high altitude to see a full circle rainbow is because there need to be water droplets below the observable horizon. And that will only happen when you are at a considerable height from the ground.
The center of a rainbow is directly opposite the position of the Sun in the sky, so more rainbows can be seen as the sun gets closer to the horizon. Therefore, the highest percentage of a rainbow (50 percent) will typically be seen at sunrise or sunset.
This is how a rainbow works
As Ángel Rodríguez explains from the informative portal cienciaes.com, “the rainbow is a game of Nature in which three different players are involved: the rays of the sun, the drops of water and our own eyes. Yes, we are an essential and very personal part of the game, because each one of us sees a different rainbow, indeed, to be exact, with each of our eyes we see a different rainbow. What happens is that, since one eye is so close to the other, the differences are very small and the brain superimposes both images into a single one.”
The classical explanation reminds us that the rainbow It is formed because the sun’s rays fall on the surface of the raindrops, which are tiny transparent spheres of water, penetrate their interior and in doing so change direction and come out backwards decomposed into colors. That’s why the Sun is always behind us when we look at a rainbow.
better from an aircraft
Regarding the observation of complete rainbows, full circle, he affirms: “If we fly above the earth’s surface, not too high so as not to exceed the clouds, the line that joins the Sun with us and the center of the rainbow can be free of obstacles. If there are enough drops of water in the environment at that moment, nature will reward us with a beautiful full-circumference rainbow!& rdquor;.
We might think that this same phenomenon would be visible from the top of a mountain, but it is not., since the mountain itself will prevent the passage of the sun’s rays and its shadow will prevent the rainbow from closing completely. So that, the option is to fly in an airplane, in a helicopter or any other flying device in which we can embark. Or climb a skyscraper as tall as the one in Saint Petersburg. In that case, we and the vehicle we are traveling in (or the building we are in) will cast a shadow in the center of the circle, a shadow that, if it is small compared to the radius of the rainbow, will not hinder its formation.
Reference article: https://www.cienciaes.com/ciencianuestra/2015/04/19/circunferencia_iris/
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