Want to experience rainbows? Then Hawaii is the place for you. It’ s the perfect place to experience rainbows.
Rainbows are one of the most amazing optical phenomena of nature. And Hawaii has an abundance of them. Hence making it the rainbow capital of the world.
Reflection, refraction and dispersion of light in water droplets and Hawaii’ s location and climate leads to the formation of rainbows.
According to Steven Businger, a professor in the University’s School of Ocean and Earth Science and Technology factors responsible for the production of rainbows in Hawaii are –
- These special combination of circumstances makes Hawaii a haven for rainbows. The climate of Hawaii is subtropical, which combined with the weather conditions and trade winds, results in frequent rain shower.
- Moreover, Hawaii’ s mountains play a vital role in the formation of frequent rainbows. This causes trade wind flow to be pushed up, leading to the formation of clouds and hence producing rainfall. Without mountains Hawaii would not experience any rainfall and become a desert.
- “At night, a warm sea surface heats the atmosphere from below, while radiation to space cools cloud tops, resulting in deeper rain showers in the morning that produce rainbows in time for breakfast,” said Businger.
- As it is located in a very remote location, there is no pollution. The air is exceptionally clean, free of dust. Thus, contributing in the formation of rainbows.
App that gives rainbow alerts!
In order to ensure that people get the full experience of beautiful rainbows, Steven Businger with the help of an app developer, co created an app.
Whenever the nearby conditions would become conducive for rainbow sightings, the users would get an alert on the app. The app uses Doppler radar data and high-resolution satellite data to alert it’ s users.
