…well ok it’s not actually a rainbow. It’s a freak of nature.
According to DailyMail.com
“Rather than being caused by raindrops, it is the result of freak atmospheric conditions rarely seen outside the North and South Poles.
While normal rainbows are formed when light penetrates raindrops and emerges on the other side without changing direction, the smile is formed when sunlight shines through millions of tiny ice crystals in cirrus and cirrus stratus clouds.
Because the crystals are flat and hexagonal, they invert the light and create an upside-down curve called a circumzenithal arc.
The phenomenon relies on the sun being low in the sky, normally less than 32 degrees from the horizon.
The arcs can appear at any time of the year, hovering in the sky only fleetingly because clouds tend to move quickly near the zenith.”
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