upside down rainbow

i was taught as a child that rainbows encircle the earth, and thats why there is no end. ive never researched it any further than that, but yesterday i saw a rainbow that was upside down in the sky, which ive neither seen or heard. here is a picture i took with my friends camera phone:




can anyone explain this to me?

Rainbows are the product of light waves being altered by airborne water/chemical molecules much the same way a prism can be used to alter light. I personally have never seen an upside down rainbow, but I have seen rainbow "spots" caused by light be refracted by fuel dumped by aircraft.

Do you remember the approximate location of the sun at the time? (helpful info)

That's a beautiful picture! I've never seen an upside rainbow. You're very lucky to have witnessed this very rare occurrence.

i dont know, but i live near seattle and it was around 5 or 6 at the time. the rainbow was to the east. i bet cmdrkeenkid could tell me where the sun was with that info.

That is interesting, maybe its a sign of good fortunes to come

Deep

I've seen a halo form around the sun, but the rainbow pictured above doesn't appear to be near the sun.

East? That sounds about right. The sun would have been directly behind you.

As an avid sky watcher and an outdoors person, i would have to say this is very odd. Any chemtrails that day?
Any rain? Was this around the sun or just up in the sky nowhere near the sun?

it didn't rain all day, and i dont believe there were any chemtrails nearby. as bangin pointed out, the sun was behind me when i took the picture.

Could this be an example of a "sun dog"?




Taken from here

Another site explains a bit more about them.

There is an end to a rainbow...
I remember my Nan telling me she stood IN the end of one, it was like being in coloured fog apparently, a once in a life time experiance. (well, as best she could describe it).

As for the upside-downess, bloody hell, that's just weird!
Yeah, I bet cmdrkeenkid could help send him a U2U.

It looks like a chemtrail ranbow caused by the stuff they are spraying in the sky.

Look up chembow.

Originally posted by LadyCool21
There is an end to a rainbow...
I remember my Nan telling me she stood IN the end of one, it was like being in coloured fog apparently, a once in a life time experiance. (well, as best she could describe it).

As for the upside-downess, bloody hell, that's just weird!
Yeah, I bet cmdrkeenkid could help send him a U2U.

I don't want to sound mean or anything, but was your gramms on any medication when she told this story?

Rainbows are caused by light difraction by raindrops. There is no 'end' to a rainbow because rainbows are not 'solid' in that sense. They exist, but two people do not see the same rainbow if they are at different points. Each person sees his own rainbow.

If you change your vantage point of the rainbow, then the position of the rainbow changes, it doesn't stay put. So you cannot go to the 'end' of a rainbow, because such a thing does not exist.

This explains it much better than I can

Originally posted by Genya
Could this be an example of a "sun dog"?

The picture in your post is an example of a sun dog, which is also known as a parhelion, but that isn't the same thing as the upside down rainbow pictured in the first post.

There is no end to a rainbow because it is a complete circle. We only see the 'bow' because the Earth gets in the way. It is possible to see the complete rainbow from an aircraft.

Originally posted by BanginThe picture in your post is an example of a sun dog, which is also known as a parhelion, but that isn't the same thing as the upside down rainbow pictured in the first post.

Hi Bangin!!

Good point. I may well have used the wrong search word here - halo would have been better perhaps? As we can't see the whole of the sky from the original photograph, my assumption was that - perhaps - the arc (the upward rainbow) continued as a circle with the same radius around the Sun (hich also isn't visible in the picture, of course.

An example of what I mean is




which might be a better representation of what we're seeing? Picture from here with explanation of how it happens.

Originally posted by Bangin

There is no end to a rainbow because it is a complete circle. We only see the 'bow' because the Earth gets in the way. It is possible to see the complete rainbow from an aircraft.

this is what stands out most in my mind. if we see only the bow on normal rainbows because the earth covers up the rest of them, then what is covering up the rest of this rainbow, or causing that effect?

So what would this be?
I just liked the pic

there are a couple of pictures similar to your inverted rainbow here

www.ma.hw.ac.uk...

Just... um... point of interest...

What could a "chemtrail" possibly have to do with this? Unless the stuff they're supposedly spraying completely inverts the physical properties of light, then this is just a standard weather phenomenon, caused by the sun refracting at just the right angle.

Of course, I'll get yelled at for this, but whatever...

You can make your own rainbows with a fine spray garden hose and a sunny day...

Originally posted by Ambient Sound
You can make your own rainbows with a fine spray garden hose and a sunny day...

Are you implying this picture is a hoax Ambient Sound? Otherwise, I'm not sure how this explains the photograph submitted??