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Nature provided a stunning backdrop to a football match last night in the form a dramatic double rainbow. The colourful bow arched over the Keepmoat Stadium yesterday evening, as players from Doncaster Rovers and Tottenham Hotspurs filed onto the pitch. A rainbow is created by both reflection and refraction. Sunlight shines on raindrops and the light is reflected back towards the observer.
The raindrop also acts as a prism. The light is bent or refracted as it enters the water and splits into the full spectrum of colours from red to indigo. The colours are so vivid here because the water droplets are between one and two millimetres in size, any smaller and the rainbow appears hazy.
The sky is brighter underneath the bow because the stadium lights are illuminating the sky in relation to where the photograph is being taken from. When you consider the time of day this occurred, the darker sky is being accentuated because the sun is about to set, creating a dramatic contrast with the dark clouds above the stadium.
The optical phenomena are clearest in early morning and late afternoon when the sun is closer to the horizon. This is because they are always centred around an imaginary point directly opposite to the Sun in the sky – the so-called anti-solar point. So the lower the sun is the higher the bow.
Met Office spokesman John Hammond said: 'The smaller the rain drops the clearer the rainbow will be. 'Looking at the weather for South Yorkshire last night, light rain and drizzle falling over the stadium combined with breaks in the cloud allowing the sun to shine through just before it set, provided ideal conditions for the rainbow to form. It’s a case of being in the right place at the right time to see such a clear and colourful rainbow'.
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