Actually, what you've photographed is not a rainbow, but a particularly intense 22 degree solar halo. If you get a big enough concentration of the right types of ice crystals, you get this halo in the multi-colored variety.
Rainbows are two-surface reflections from water droplets, that's why they're seen opposite the sun. The halo is a single reflection through floating ice crystals. There's also a 46 degree halo that's sometimes seen outside the primary. This doesn't count the 10-15 other types of halos and artifacts that can occur.
Arches Sun Circle
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Actually, what you've photographed is not a rainbow, but a particularly intense 22 degree solar halo. If you get a big enough concentration of the right types of ice crystals, you get this halo in the multi-colored variety.
Rainbows are two-surface reflections from water droplets, that's why they're seen opposite the sun. The halo is a single reflection through floating ice crystals. There's also a 46 degree halo that's sometimes seen outside the primary. This doesn't count the 10-15 other types of halos and artifacts that can occur.
It's very nice, in any case.