Fifth Order Rainbow

For the first time, a fifth order rainbow has been documented. No doubt everyone knows about the first and second order rainbows. Those are simply your primary and double rainbows that are fairly common around the world. In 2011, the third and fourth order rainbow was documented. However, we had to wait 3 years to find that ever elusive fifth order rainbow. Below is an enhanced image of the rainbow, as well as the original photo.

A fifth order rainbow occurs when sunlight is refracted in a raindrop five times. It is incredibly hard, if not impossible, to see this with the naked eye. Thus, we must use the help of image enhancement to pick out rainbows with such high orders of refraction. Fifth order rainbows generally form from small, localized thunderstorms and at a high altitude.