Raymond Lee, a meteorologist at the US Naval Academy told National Geographic that true quadruple rainbows are extremely rare. 'There have only been four or five scientifically documented sightings of quaternary or tertiary rainbows since 1700,' said Lee.
Yes, although very rare, it is possible for a human to see four natural rainbows at once in the sky. A rainbow occurs when white sunlight scatters off of raindrops in the air.
Multiple Rainbows
One of the rarest forms is multiple, or double, rainbows. They occur when several rainbows form in the same place at the same time. It takes at least one primary rainbow to generate this sight, as well as several other secondary rainbows. There is always space in between each one.
Few people have ever claimed to see three rainbows arcing through the sky at once. In fact, scientific reports of these phenomena, called tertiary rainbows, were so rare -- only five in 250 years -- that until now many scientists believed sightings were as fanciful as Leprechaun's gold at a rainbow's end.
Though it's pretty difficult to actually see one, 360-degree rainbows are not actually rare. In its total form, a rainbow truly never ends.
Multiple Rainbows
On very rare occasions, you might see more than one rainbow arching through the sky. There could be two, three, or even more though higher numbers are extremely uncommon.
Perhaps because there are so many different types, each with its own distinctive features, new research suggests. There are 12 types of rainbows, distinguished by various characteristics, the study suggests. Fat droplets of water or tiny sprays of mist will affect them, along with the angle of the sun.
However, scientists say 360-degree rainbows are not actually rare, but they are pretty rare to actually see. In its total form, a rainbow truly never ends. People's ground-based vantage prevents them from seeing the full, colorful circle of refracted light.
How rare are fire rainbows? To observe a fire rainbow is actually quite rare because certain atmospheric conditions must align systematically for the fire rainbow phenomenon to occur. One important note though. Fire rainbows aren't seen just anywhere from the globe.
A monochrome or red rainbow is an optical and meteorological phenomenon and a rare variation of the more commonly seen multicolored rainbow.
The rainbow comprises a spectrum of light that appears in the sky as a result of light reflection, refraction, and dispersion in water droplets. The seven main colours we see in rainbow are red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo and violet. However, we never see colours like black, white or grey in rainbows.
He also noted that the sequence of the colours of a rainbow never changed, always running in the same order. He coined the idea that there are seven colours in a spectrum: red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo and violet (ROYGBIV).
3 primary colors: red, yellow, and blue. 3 secondary colors: orange, green, and violet. 6 tertiary colors: red-orange, yellow-orange, yellow-green, blue-green, blue-violet, and red-violet.
Cloud iridescence is relatively rare, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, because clouds must be thin and contain bountiful water droplets or ice crystals of similar size.
The 5th order lies between the primary and secondary rainbows in the dark sky of Alexanders dark band, where there is no primary or secondary rainbow light. Original image of 5th order rainbow. Photo by Harald Edens. The fabled quinary or 5th order rainbow is made by sunlight reflected five times inside raindrops.
Sunlight is diffracted as well as refracted by the fine droplets, creating a pale and wider arch than a rainbow. "They are fairly common in some parts of the world, but you wouldn't say they're common in Australia and the reason for that is the angle of the sun," said the ABC resident meteorologist, Tom Saunders.
Glories are common. People traveling in airplanes see them all the time. You need the sun to be directly behind your head.
Although moonbows are rare, they do tend to happen more frequently in certain locations. These locations usually have waterfalls that generate layers of mist in the air. The moonbows created near waterfalls are often called spray moonbows.
Just like daytime rainbows, moonbows need the light from the moon to be reflected and refracted by water droplets at a certain angle to create a rainbow. Rather than seeing the full spectrum of colours, moonbows often appear to be white to the human eye.
Circumzenithal arcs are relatively common, though a special set of circumstances are required. The sun needs to be more than five, and less than 32 degrees above the horizon, in order that the sunlight can refract in the correct way through the ice crystals to form the smiling, rather than frowning, halo.
Gold Rares are a bit rarer than Rainbow Rares, making them the rarest cards in the Pokemon TCG.
Cloud iridescence is relatively rare. The cloud must be thin and have lots of water droplets or ice crystals of about the same size. When that happens, the sun's rays encounter just a few droplets at at time.
The colours of the rainbow are: Red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, violet. Can you find items from around the house in each of the seven colours? How many red items can you find? How many green?
When sunlight and raindrops combine to make a rainbow, they can make a whole circle of light in the sky. But it's a very rare sight. Sky conditions have to be just right for this, and even if they are, the bottom part of a full-circle rainbow is usually blocked by your horizon.
While triple rainbows (known as tertiary) are possible, these photos show a slightly less are but still unique weather phenomenon beyond the double rainbow in view. As light is reflected through water droplets, a rainbow is formed and when leftover light comes back for a second reflection a double rainbow can occur.