Sandbow or Rainbow?

Stephen R. Wilk

Water droplets and ice crystals create beautiful rainbows that paint the sky. Can other natural particles produce similar arcs of color?

 

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In the morning there was khamsin [a sandstorm] and we saw a sandbow. It was on a level with the sun, and not opposite it as in rainbows, but about 30° from it; not the shape of a rainbow, but of a nebula; all the colours perfect. It had a most singular effect; it was about midday, so that the top of the pillar of sand must have reached that height.

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