Received from family by email:
"THIS IS A FIRE RAINBOW - THE RAREST OF ALL NATURALLY OCCURING
ATMOSPHERIC PHENOMENA. THE PICTURE WAS CAPTURED THIS WEEK ON THE IDAHO/
WASHINGTON BORDER THE EVENT LASTED ABOUT 1 HOUR CLOUDS HAVE TO BE
CIRRUS, AT LEAST 20K FEET IN THE AIR, WITH JUST THE RIGHT AMOUNT OF
ICE CRYSTALS AND THE SUN HAS TO HIT THE CLOUDS AT PRECISELY 58
DEGREES."
Hm. Perhaps you have seen this one in your Inbox. There's plenty of
discussion on the web. Snopes says it's legit.
In the picture, which I have hosted, we see some clouds up in the blue
sky with no terrain in sight. The red of the rainbow is at the top of
the picure, the blue at the bottom.
Assuming the sun is "behind" and "below" the picture, shouldn't the
blue parts of the rainbow be at the top? Those rays are bent farthest
according to a sketch I just scribbled out which is not hosted. I'd
have to scan it. Higher-energy rays bend farther in refractive media,
is that not true?
I say all this because on sight, it looked fake, like someone had
colored only the white of the clouds with a paint program. It also
looks too linear; the bands are too straight. I thought about it and
detected this inversion of the color positions, which may be a clue.
To see the picture, use
http://users.aol.com/DGoncz/Pictures/Rainbow.jpg
Doug Goncz
Replikon Research
Seven Corners, VA 22044-0394
