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360° Rainbow

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At the base of the 200' tall Skógafoss waterfall in Iceland I saw something I've never seen before: a 360° rainbow. Every rainbow is actually a full circle, but the lower part is almost always blocked by the horizon. There are only a few situations where a full 360° rainbow may become visible. One way is to have a very high vantage point, where you can clearly see below. A steep mountaintop or an airplane window would work under perfect weather conditions. But in this case, it was spray from the waterfall that caused the rare optical effect. The rainbow faded in and out depending on the wind and where I was standing. The amount of mist in the air had to be just right. The sun also needed to be low on the horizon, so that the light would be shining through the mist at just the right angle. The radius of a rainbow from the center (the antisolar point) to the outer edge is always 42°. Since my widest lens only had a field of view of 81°, I couldn't quite capture it in it's entirety.

Copyright
Kevin Palmer
Image Size
6016x4016 / 12.7MB
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Contained in galleries
Iceland
At the base of the 200' tall Skógafoss waterfall in Iceland I saw something I've never seen before: a 360° rainbow. Every rainbow is actually a full circle, but the lower part is almost always blocked by the horizon. There are only a few situations where a full 360° rainbow may become visible. One way is to have a very high vantage point, where you can clearly see below. A steep mountaintop or an airplane window would work under perfect weather conditions. But in this case, it was spray from the waterfall that caused the rare optical effect. The rainbow faded in and out depending on the wind and where I was standing. The amount of mist in the air had to be just right. The sun also needed to be low on the horizon, so that the light would be shining through the mist at just the right angle. The radius of a rainbow from the center (the antisolar point) to the outer edge is always 42°. Since my widest lens only had a field of view of 81°, I couldn't quite capture it in it's entirety.