Abstract

The primary and secondary rainbow, as well as the glory, are well known phenomena, whereas the corona is scarcely known. These phenomena are produced by the scattering of light at water droplets; the main features can be explained by light scattering at a single water droplet. In the framework of geometrical optics the primary and secondary rainbows are described as a limiting angle effect of rays with one and two internal reflections, respectively /1/. Glory and corona phenomena are interference effects at small water droplets being approximately desribed by diffraction scattering at a plane disk /2/.

© 1986 Optical Society of America