The second and more faint rainbow is called the secondary rainbow. Secondary rainbows are formed when the light does not escape the raindrops after its first reflection. Instead, it reflects a second time.
Characteristics of Secondary Rainbows:
- Colour of bands are reversed
- This is because light rays are reflected a second time.
- Colour of bands are fainter
- Not all light rays are able to go through the additional refraction process thus the secondary rainbows are fainter.
- Located higher up in the sky
- Light rays exit rain drops at a larger angle; for secondary rainbows, it is 50°to 53° while for primary rainbows, it is 40° to 43°
