View at EarthSky Community Photos. | Angie Reagan in South Lake Tahoe, California, captured this image on April 9, 2023. Angie wrote: “I was waiting for this to turn into a rainbow, but I later learned from my friend, Amheric, that this is actually a fogbow and perhaps even more special. On this day, it was just the source of light I needed.” Thank you, Angie!
Fogbows also go by the names white rainbow, cloudbow or ghost rainbow. They’re made much as rainbows are, from the same configuration of sunlight and moisture. Rainbows happen when the raindrops fill the air. You always see a rainbow in the direction opposite the sun. Fogbows are much the same, always opposite the sun. But the small droplets inside a fog or cloud create fogbows as compared to larger raindrops that create rainbows.
Look for fogbows in a thin fog when the sun is bright. You might see one when the sun breaks through a fog. Or watch for fogbows over the ocean.
Because the water droplets in fog are so small, fogbows have only weak colors or are colorless.
Look away from the sun and at an angle of 35-40 degrees from your shadow, which marks the direction of the antisolar point [point directly opposite the sun]. Some fogbows have very low contrast, so look for small brightenings in the misty background. Once caught, they are unmistakable.
The sun must be less than 30-40 degrees high, unless you are on a hill or high up on a ship where you can see the mist and fogbow from above.
Fogbows are huge, almost as large as a rainbow and much, much broader.
View at EarthSky Community Photos. | Cecille Kennedy in Newport, Oregon, caught this image of a fogbow on July 16, 2021. She wrote: “What appears like a white rainbow in this photo is a natural phenomena caused by fog. Thus it’s referred to as a fogbow. It appears white because the water droplets are much tinier than your average raindrop … Yaquina Head Light is in the upper right. At 93 feet [28 meters], it’s the tallest lighthouse in Oregon. The flowers are fireweed, so named because of their propensity to grow following fires. They are prevalent along the Oregon coast.” Thank you, Cecille!View at EarthSky Community Photos. | Gene Peck in Hollywood Beach, California, captured this fogbow on October 31, 2020. He said “I was taking a morning walk in a clear sunny sky with an offshore fog bank. Within 20 minutes the fog moved in, enveloping the beach. I took this facing north-northwest, The fogbow lasted only a minute or 2, before the fog began dissipating.”View at EarthSky Community Photos. | Sheryl R. Garrison caught this bow in Alberta, Canada, on October 26, 2020. Cloudbow or fogbow? Les Cowley of Atmospheric Optics told us: “Technically it is a cloudbow or fogbow. They are exactly the same phenomenon. But cloudbows appear in skies when there is no obvious ground level fog [as in this photo]. These bows with pastel colors and a white center need small water droplets compared to the larger raindrops of rainbows. The drops are suspended in humid air. You can sometimes see these bows when the air is freezing if the water drops remain supercooled and do not freeze.”
More fogbow photos
View at EarthSky Community Photos. | Peter Lowenstein caught this fogbow in Mutare, Zimbabwe, on April 29, 2020. He wrote: “Half an hour after the sun rose behind my house, a beautiful fogbow developed in the middle of a misty morning view from my front veranda. All the conditions were right, bright sunshine from the rear with the sun less than 20 degrees above the horizon and clearing clouds of mist at the antisolar point. The scene was framed by a beautiful flowering poinsettia to the left, a lush banana grove to the right, and clear blue sky beginning to appear on top!”View at EarthSky Community Photos. | Alan Nicolle in New South Wales, Australia, captured this image on July 16, 2019. He wrote: “I was out geocaching in the outskirts of Broken Hill, when I turned back to see this fogbow developing. I took quite a few photos with the iPhone, and rode back to the car on my bike. But, by the time I got back to the car to use my SLR, it had faded.” Thank you, Alan!Greg Diesel Walck Photography wrote in October 2015: “Saw my first fogbow/white rainbow. Photo taken with cell phone. Moyock, North Carolina.” Thank you, Greg!
Bottom line: A fogbow look like a white or colorless rainbow. They appear opposite the sun. Watch for them in a thin fog, when the sun is bright. You might see one when the sun breaks through a fog. Or watch for fogbows over the ocean.
Deborah Byrd created the EarthSky radio series in 1991 and founded EarthSky.org in 1994. Today, she serves as Editor-in-Chief of this website. She has won a galaxy of awards from the broadcasting and science communities, including having an asteroid named 3505 Byrd in her honor. A science communicator and educator since 1976, Byrd believes in science as a force for good in the world and a vital tool for the 21st century. “Being an EarthSky editor is like hosting a big global party for cool nature-lovers,” she says.
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