Why some rainbows are all red

Sun’s spot in the sky influences how light bends to form colorful arcs

rainbow

ON THE SPECTRUM  Rainbows containing only a limited fraction of the light spectrum form as the sun drops lower in the sky, new research finds.

Graham Hickey/Flickr (CC BY-SA 2.0)

SAN FRANCISCO — Some rainbows don’t contain all the colors of the rainbow.