The Rainbow is not a parabola. It is part of a circle. The Rainbow is seen at all points where the angle between the sunlight ( light directly from the sun) and the refractured light to your eyes have a fixed angle.

Rainbows are circular. They are formed by refraction and reflection of sunlight off of water droplets. This effect is strongest at 42 degrees, so the main rainbow consists of light 42 degrees from the point in the sky opposite the sun.

Rainbows are actually full circles. The antisolar point is the center of the circle. Viewers in aircraft can sometimes see these circular rainbows. Viewers on the ground can only see the light reflected by raindrops above the horizon.

We see rainbows on earth when the sun’s rays interact with water droplets, refracting light towards whoever is looking at it. To see a rainbow in outer space is quite rare given the certain specific atmospheric conditions that have to all come together.

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.

What Are the 12 Types of Rainbows Called? + Fun Rainbow Facts

• Fogbow. A fogbow is a type of rainbow that occurs when fog or a small cloud experience sunlight passing through them.
• Lunar. A lunar rainbow (aka “moonbow”) is another unusual sight.
• Multiple Rainbows.
• Twinned.
• Full Circle.
• Supernumerary bow.

A rainbow order is a characteristic which is used to categorize rainbows into the two basic groups: primary rainbows and secondary rainbows. The main determinant of a rainbow order is the number of reflections of light in water droplets involved in the formation of a rainbow.

twinned” rainbow

circumzenithal arc

While fire rainbows are relatively common throughout the United States, they are rare in northern Europe for several reasons. Not only do the ice crystal-containing clouds need to be in the right position in the sky, the halo requires the light source must be at an elevation of 58 degrees or higher.

A halo is a ring of color seen around the sun anytime and anyplace on Earth when there are Cirrus clouds. Cirrus clouds are made of ice crystals that act like prisms.

Brightly colored circumhorizontal arc occur mostly during the summer and between particular latitudes. When the sun is very high in the sky, sunlight entering flat, hexagon shaped ice crystals gets split into individual colors just like in a prism.