Home    OpticsPOD   What's New    Rays & Shadows   Water Droplets   Rainbows     Not a rainbow!     Primary Bow     Secondary Bow     A's Dark Band     Other Orders     Supernumeraries       Formation       Drop size       Colours       Secondary Bow     Red Bows     Rainbow Wheel     Dew Bow     Sea Spray Bow     Glass Bead Bows     Reflection Bows     Twinned Bows     Cloud Bows     Moon Bows     Image Gallery     Simulators   Ice Halos   High Atmosphere   Links & Resources   Search - Index                   123456789012345678		Supernumerary Colours
		Colours of a rainbow.  Cross sections of bows of different colours from 0.7 mm diameter raindrops. The bow actually seen (lower section) is the sum* of all the individual coloured bows. Compare with the classical rainbow from large raindrops. The purples, pinks and greens of supernumeraries are complex mixtures. In the example, the first violet band at 40.6º is made from blues of the main primary bow plus reds and yellows of the first supernumerary. The second violet band comes from primary bow violet with some reds from a second supernumerary. The greens are very desaturated and owe much of their apparent colour to contrast with the adjacent pinks and purples.    * The bows were calculated by AirySim using Airy theory, spherical monodisperse drops and convolution over the solar disc. The composite bow colour intensities were weighted by the spectral intensity distribution of sunlight at the earth's surface.