Is an upside down rainbow possible?

Question

If you are flying in a plane at cruising height and see a big rainstorm from above and the sun is positioned so as to cause a rainbow, will the rainbow appear 'upside down' because you are above the rain instead of below it as on the ground?

Answer 1

nope, i think the sun would have to be shining from the ground up through the rain for that to happen

Answer 2

where would the gold be buried?

Answer 3

if you're on earth ofcoz it is impossible.. except if the earth were emitted such radiation just like sun radiation..

Answer 4

Good question....I would think not as everyone sees a rainbow in a different way...so if you were above the rain you would see the rainbow in a different way from those on the ground....but it would still the the normal way...not upside down.....I think.

Answer 5

rainbows actually go round in a circle so half of them is underground

Answer 6

Yes. A sundog is a complete rainbow around the sun. If the top half becomes obscured (sundogs, like rainbows, usually appear in mist) then you get an upside down rainbow.

It's only a refraction of light through the atmosphere afterall.

Answer 7

Rainbows are optical and meteorological phenomena that cause a spectrum of light to appear in the sky when the Sun shines onto droplets of moisture in the Earth's atmosphere. They take the form of a multicoloured arc, with red on the outer part of the arch and violet on the inner section of the arch. More rarely, a secondary rainbow is seen, which is a second, fainter arc, outside the primary arc, with colours in the opposite order, that is, with violet on the outside and red on the inside.

A rainbow spans a continuous spectrum of colours. Traditionally, however, the sequence is quantised. The most commonly cited and remembered sequence, in English, is Newton's sevenfold red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo and violet. "Roy G. Biv" and "Richard Of York Gave Battle In Vain" are popular mnemonics.

Rainbows can be caused by other forms of water than rain, including mist, spray, dew, fog, and ice. Moreover, rainbows can have shapes other than a bow (arc), including stripes, circles, or even flames. (See circumhorizontal arc).

The rainbow's appearance is caused by dispersion of sunlight as it goes through raindrops. The light is first refracted as it enters the surface of the raindrop, reflected off the back of the drop, and again refracted as it leaves the drop. The overall effect is that the incoming light is reflected back over a wide range of angles, with the most intense light at an angle of 40°–42°. The angle is independent of the size of the drop, but does depend on its refractive index. Seawater has a higher refractive index than rain water, so the radius of a 'rain'bow in sea spray is smaller than a true rainbow. This is visible to the naked eye by a misalignment of these bows.[2]

The amount by which light is refracted depends upon its wavelength, and hence its colour. Blue light (shorter wavelength) is refracted at a greater angle than red light, but because the area of the back of the droplet has a focal point inside the droplet, the spectrum crosses itself, and therefore the red light appears higher in the sky, and forms the outer colour of the rainbow. Contrary to popular belief, the light at the back of the raindrop does not undergo total internal reflection and some light does emerge from the back. However, light coming out the back of the raindrop does not create a rainbow between the observer and the sun because spectra emitted from the back of the raindrop do not have a maximum of intensity, as the other visible rainbows do, and thus the colours blend together rather than forming a rainbow.



Light rays enter a raindrop from one direction (typically a straight line from the Sun), reflect off the back of the raindrop, and fan out as they leave the raindrop. The light leaving the rainbow is spread over a wide angle, with a maximum intensity of 40.6°–42°.  

White light separates into different colours (wavelengths) on entering the raindrop because red light is refracted by a lesser angle than blue light. On leaving the raindrop, the red rays have turned through a smaller angle than the blue rays, producing a rainbow.

Answer 8

Yes, it's an optical illusion. They can even appear as complete circles from an aeroplane.

"From an aeroplane, one has the opportunity to see the whole circle of the rainbow, with the plane's shadow in the centre."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rainbow

http://www.wunderground.com/data/wximage...