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| Another Anomalous Bow A triple rainbow imaged by Jim Ryan on his iPhone and brought to OPOD by Pete Glastonbury. South of Barnstaple, Devon, England. "Wet and windy.. .. showers passing by quickly with rain coming down in sheets.. ..only had time to take one photo before it disappeared." ©Jim Ryan, shown with permission. |
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| Sandwiched between a bright primary bow and a reverse colour secondary is an anomalous third rainbow. As in an earlier OPOD, first thoughts are that it is a reflection bow produced by sunlight beaming upwards from mirror smooth water. There were indeed two small pools each side of the imaging point but the bow is in the wrong position and tilted completely wrongly for it to be formed by reflection from a smooth pool. The reflection bow 'should' be angled more sharply upwards. Perhaps the water was not smooth? Perhaps it had waves tilted at just the right angle? But that is wildly improbable - we could as likely invoke the downdraft of a passing UFO. Perhaps it is an extreme example of a twinned rainbow. But this one would need prolate raindrops! Several readers have suggested a reflection bow from a wet roof. That would produce the third bow if the roof were very large, close and tilted so that the sun just glanced off it at a small angle. Google Earth shows no such roof but perhaps a large farm building was recently constructed nearby?
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| Reflection bows angle steeply upwards between primary and secondary |