What Determines How Arched A Rainbow Is?

[smiffffffy]

Ok, so the other day I saw two rainbows during different parts of the day during different showers at different locations.
The first rainbow was the stereotypically arched rainbow that you envisage one to be.
However the second one was a very shallow arch, this one still seemed to have the same wide start and finish points across the horizon, but the height of the arch was very much lower from he ground centre point to the top of the arc . ( so not like the stereotypical rainbow shape )

[bhg481]

The height of the sun above the horizon determines the shape of the rainbow.

[Calibax]

Rainbows are arcs of near perfect circles and the differently preceived shapes are due to how much of the circle shows above the horizon. The difference comes from the relative positions of the sun, the horizon and your eyes. Sometimes in a plane you can look down and see the entire circle of the rainbow.

[Hopkirk]

If you see one from an aircraft you see the full circle.

[TonyV]

Think you also need above average moisture in the air.

[Calibax]

^Obviously you need raindrops to refract and reflect the sunlight.

[TonyV]

Yes Calibax, just like a prism splits light into RGBIV other ends are out of our light range.

[douglas9401]

God determines it.

Cue floods of complaints. :-)

[mibn2cweus]

https://steemit.com/education/@syahardian/brief-explanation-of-the-rainbow-process-c5fde59acd94e