Photo fact: a rare inverted rainbow appeared in the sky in Zaporizhzhia
7 October 14:56
Residents of Zaporizhzhia managed to photograph a natural phenomenon – an inverted rainbow. The rare phenomenon was reported by the Zaporizhzhia Regional Centre for Hydrometeorology, Komersant ukrainskyi reports.
“In Zaporizhzhia, a rare optical phenomenon was observed – an inverted rainbow, or ‘smile in the sky’. It occurs at an altitude of 7-8 km in the presence of cirrus clouds consisting of ice crystals,” the report says.
The Zaporizhzhia City Hall explained that sunlight must fall on the clouds at a certain angle to decompose into a spectrum and be reflected into the atmosphere.
“The colours in the rainbow are also arranged upside down: purple at the top and red at the bottom,” the forecasters said.
For reference: a rainbow is an optical phenomenon in the atmosphere that consists of one, two or more coloured arcs (or circles when viewed from the air) observed against the background of a cloud opposite the Sun.
