Double rainbows. We thought we could only see them from the ground here. But it can also be seen from space! It's not really a rainbow but it does look like one! This is called a glory.
The optical phenomenon was captured by the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer on NASA's Terra satellite, orbiting over Baja California.
The image was enhanced to highlight the colors of the rainbow, and it's a very rare sight from space. The first time this was sighted in was in 2003, when the crew of the space shuttle Columbia photographed a circular glory from orbit.
NASA explains the phenomenon at their Earth Observatory site:
Glories generally appear as concentric rings of color in front of mist or fog. They form when water droplets within clouds scatter sunlight back toward a source of illumination (in this case the Sun).
Glories always appear around the spot directly opposite the Sun, from the perspective of the viewer. This spot is called the anti-solar point. To visualize this, imagine a line connecting the Sun, a viewer, and the spot where the glory appears. In this case, the anti-solar point falls about halfway between the two colored lines of the glory.
Glories are usually seen against a background of white clouds. Clouds are white because the sunlight is scattered many times by multiple droplets within the clouds. The white light often obscures details of glories, but without them in the background, the glory would not be visible.
Glories always appear around the spot directly opposite the Sun, from the perspective of the viewer. This spot is called the anti-solar point. To visualize this, imagine a line connecting the Sun, a viewer, and the spot where the glory appears. In this case, the anti-solar point falls about halfway between the two colored lines of the glory.
Glories are usually seen against a background of white clouds. Clouds are white because the sunlight is scattered many times by multiple droplets within the clouds. The white light often obscures details of glories, but without them in the background, the glory would not be visible.
Here is the complete image.
[NASA via Universe Today]
