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A rainbow spans a continuous spectrum of colors; the distinct bands (including the number of bands) are an artifact of human color vision, and no banding of any type is seen in a black-and-white photograph of a rainbow (only a smooth gradation of intensity to a maxima, then fading to a minima at the other side of the arc).
Circumhorizontal arcs, especially when only fragments can be seen, are sometimes confused with cloud iridescence. This phenomenon also causes clouds to appear multi-coloured, but it originates from diffraction (typically by liquid water droplets or ice crystals) rather than refraction. The two phenomena can be distinguished by several features.
The circumzenithal arc, also called the circumzenith arc (CZA), the upside-down rainbow, and the Bravais arc, [1] is an optical phenomenon similar in appearance to a rainbow, but belonging to the family of halos arising from refraction of sunlight through ice crystals, generally in cirrus or cirrostratus clouds, rather than from raindrops.
Common optical phenomena are often due to the interaction of light from the Sun or Moon with the atmosphere, clouds, water, dust, and other particulates. One common example is the rainbow , when light from the Sun is reflected and refracted by water droplets.
The sky inside a primary rainbow is brighter than the sky outside of the bow. This is because each raindrop is a sphere and it scatters light over an entire circular disc in the sky. The radius of the disc depends on the wavelength of light, with red light being scattered over a larger angle than blue light.
In an incredible weather phenomenon, these colorful clouds were seen in the sky above southern China
Sky-gazers on the east coast of North America may see up to 25 meteors streaking across the skies, while those on the west coast could see double that amount due to a later sunrise, Lunsford said.
The small particles in the expanding exhaust plume or "cloud" diffract sunlight and produce the rose, blue, green and orange colors—much like a dispersive prism can be used to break light up into its constituent spectral colors (the colors of the rainbow) – thereby making the twilight phenomenon all the more spectacular. [1]