'Rainbow ghost' appears in the sky of Scotland

The silky white silver rainbow across the Scottish sky makes many people think of "rainbow ghost".

"Rainbow ghost" is silvery white.(Photo: Melvin Nicholson).

Photographer Melvin Nicholson recorded an impressive natural phenomenon while strolling in the Rannoch Moor region in northwestern Scotland on November 20. " It's great to see this scene, and you can only watch it while standing with your back to the Sun," IFL Science quoted Melvin.

The faint white light in Nicholson's photo is called a fogbow . According to scientists, this phenomenon is similar to the usual rainbow, created from sunlight and extremely small water droplets, with a diameter less than 0.05mm.

Because the size is so small, these droplets cannot refract light and produce a multicolored effect like rainwater. However, they cause diffraction phenomena (bending and spreading light waves), making the eyes often see a rainbow of silvery white, faint in the mist, often dubbed the "rainbow ghost".

In some cases, rainbow dew also has a faint red color at the top.