Red Rainbow in the Rockies
July 10, 2003
Provided by: Rich Jackson
Summary authors & editors: Jim Foster; Rich Jackson
This sequence of rainbow photos was taken near Denver, Colorado on June 29, just after sunset. The extremely high arch of this bow is a good indicator that the Sun was near or below the horizon. Since the Sun had already set, the bow has a decidedly red appearance. This is due to the longer path-length of the Sun's rays at sunset (or sunrise) -- much of blue, green and yellow portions of sunlight have been scattered away from the viewer. See also tomorrow's Earth Science Picture of the Day, and the Earth Science Picture of the Day for May 13, 2002 (Archives).
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