There are at least 12 kinds of rainbows, a new study reveals, and some skip a color or two.
SAN FRANCISCO —At sunrise and sunset, only ROY shows up for rainbow duty—G and BIV don’t appear for the earliest and latest color shows in the sky. Rainbows, it seems, are far more complex than the simple mnemonic for the colors of the rainbow that we all learned as children.
Inspired by the rainbow of rainbows, atmospheric scientist Jean Ricard has created a new rainbow classification scheme, which he presents Friday at a meeting of the American Geophysical Union.
Some Rainbows Don?t Have Every Color of the Rainbow