Twinned Primary,
Single Secondary Rainbow imaged
by Michael Großmann. ©Michael
Großmann, shown with permission.
"The bow was seen June 15 2006 at Bilfingen,
northwest of Pforzheim, Germany. The weather that day started clear and
warm. In the afternoon a fresh stormy wind came up with a short shower. After
15 minutes the weather became clear again. It was the only shower
that day"
Twinned bows are a doubling
of the primary - not to
be confused with supernumerary fringes.
The twinning is often associated with violent showers and only lasts
a short time.
We don't know for sure what causes them. The two bows might be produced
by two types of raindrop,
small spherical ones and large flattened ones. The lack of splitting
of the secondary bow give some support to this.
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