Circle of light: Helicopter crew captures mesmerizing video of a full-circle rainbow in Hawaii
Rainbows are actually circular. When you're standing on the ground, you only see the top part of this circle because the rest of it is blocked by the ground. However, if you were to gain some altitude and be able to look down you can sometimes see most, if not all, of the full circle of a rainbow.
Amazing video shows a round rainbow that formed over Hawaii canyon
New video From the Hawaii Department of Land and Natural Resources shows a full-circle rainbow that formed over Waimea Canyon earlier this week.
KAUAI, Hawaii - It's the circle of life - or maybe it's the circle of light!
A field crew from Hawaii's Department of Land and Natural Resources was flying high above Waimea Canyon in Kauai, Hawaii when they noticed something spectacular.
Off in the distance, below the helicopter, was a full-circle rainbow, and the crew was able to capture the mesmerizing sight on video.
FILE - Colorful arc of a rainbow during a summer storm.
(Jim Lane / Education Images / Universal Images Group / Getty Images)
"Rainbows are formed by a combination of reflection and refraction inside raindrops," says Michael Kavulich, a research scientist with the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colorado.
First, you need the sun behind you and the rain out front. Next, you need those raindrops to be spherical. Luckily, most raindrops fit the bill.
"When light enters the raindrop, it bends due to this refraction phenomenon (which) affects different wavelengths of light slightly differently," Kavulich said. "So a red light is going to bend slightly less than blue light."
New video From the Hawaii Department of Land and Natural Resources shows a full-circle rainbow that formed over Waimea Canyon earlier this week.
(Hawaii Department of Land and Natural Resources.)
And an interesting fact - rainbows are circular.
When standing on the ground, you only see the top part of this circle because the rest is blocked by the ground and why it appears as a rain "bow" and not a rain "circle."
However, if you were to gain some altitude and be able to look down -- say, standing atop a skyscraper or on a plane or overlooking a cliff, you can sometimes see most, if not all, of the full circle of a rainbow.