Reflected bows and a not quite calm sea.

Imaged by Jay Landry at Oak Harbor, Washington State, USA near to sunset on August 25, 2007. His son Eric first noticed the rainbow.

"It started as a single rainbow, then a secondary appeared. then both bows split forming four bows."


The broad bow to the left of the bright primary is a reflection bow.
The low sun was reflected off the sea behind the photographer and four miles away to the west. The reflected rays travelled upwards to form another rainbow centered on a point, the anthelic point, above the horizon at the same altitude as the sun.

The secondary reflection bow was formed in the same way.

'Ordinary' bows are centered on the antisolar point beneath the horizon. At sunset the antisolar and anthelic points, and their rainbows, merge.

The sea was evidently not completely calm because the reflection bows are slightly blurred. The wave undulations have blurred them in the vertical more than the horizontal direction.

More reflection bows 1,2,3,4.