The low lying rainbows

The Low-lying rainbows

Low-lying rainbows are often seen here in Hawaiʻi. There are six members of this group as follows:

A low-lying rainbow (na Perception | Dreamstime.com)

The members of this group are all low-lying rainbows, but is considered low-lying? At what apparent altitude would the rainbow have to appear, in order to be considered low-lying? When the sun is moving upward, rainbows are moving downward. When the sun reaches 40-42 degrees above the horizon in the east (or west), the rainbow appears in the west (or east). When the sun angle above the horizon exceeds 42 degrees, rainbows disappear below the horizon. Some of the low-lying rainbows appear just above the horizon, therefore, the appear in the strata of lewa hoʻomakua or lewa lani lewa perhaps. The typical width of the colors of a rainbow is approximately 680 feet.[1] If the violet color is level with the horizon, then the top of the red band would be 680 feet above the horizon. Therefore the top of the red would be in a portion of the lewa lani lewa. In the photo below, all of the colors can be seen as well as some space below the arc above the ground. What is the altitude of space below the arc? Referring to the below picture, it seems, about 4-5 widths of color band could fit within that space. Therefore, the altitude of the top of the color band is 680 x 4-5 = 3,400 - 4,800 feet.[2] This puts the top of the color band in the lewa lani lewa. As a result of this analysis, it can perhaps be established that the bottom portion of the lewa lani lewa is the highest altitude that the low-lying rainbows appear. This is helpful in identifying a rainbow that is appearing in front of an observer.

The altitude of low-lying rainbows

The signs/omens of the low-lying rainbows

The research results for each of the low-lying rainbows are shown on their individual pages. The results for the low-lying rainbows taken together are shown below. There were 16 signs/omens found within the sources analyzed for the low-lying rainbows. There are 96 occurrences of these signs/omens, and the signs concerning a movement were the most numerous (46). The Chi-square goodness-of-fit test was performed on the data, and the result is that the data varies significantly from an equal distribution and therefore one or more of the groups is significantly different than the others from a mathematical perspective. Which group(s)? Perhaps it is the group of signs concerning a movement since it is the most numerous.