Rare quadruple rainbow pictured in New York
A woman in New York captured the moment an incredibly rare quadruple rainbow appeared in the sky over Long Island.
Amanda Curtis, CEO and co-founder of the fashion start-up Nineteenth Amendment, tweeted the photo, which appears to show four separate rainbow arcs.
Curtis spotted the spectacular sight on Tuesday morning, following stormy weather in the area, the Huffington Post reports.
The phenomenon is extraordinarily rare and only five third- and fourth-level rainbows have ever been recorded in 250 years.
Rainbows are formed by light reflected on rain droplets. According to New Scientist, double rainbows are produced when light reflects inside a droplet twice and triple rainbows happen when it reflects three times.
Paul Neiman, who works as a research meteorologist at NOAA's Earth System Research Observatory, wrote about the quadruple rainbow on his Facebook page: "This smooth water surface reflects the sun, such that a second solar light source is generated.
"This reflected sun, which is located the same the number of arc degrees below the horizon as the real sun is above the horizon, creates a second primary and secondary rainbow on the opposite side of the sky from the sun, but with the center of these reflected-light rainbows above the horizon. The geometry dictates that the regular and reflected-light rainbows will join at the horizon, as this photo shows."
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