Paddling a Fjord
Sagvasselva Fjord
After our day of “rest”, everyone was ready for a paddle. As planned we set off early start to head north of Namsos, to a beautiful put-in by Rypnesbukta. While the drive was short, it brought us along stunning views out over the coast, lakes, inlets and islands.
Not long after we put-in on the water, we witnessed what I understand to be a flat rainbow, which is not a common sight (it would be great if anyone had any corrections/confirmation on this). Here are a couple of technical details:
The photograph below was taken at 11:48am (close to midday), facing north-ish.
Lattitude: 64° 34' 31.266" N
Longitude: 11° 36' 27.486" E
At that time and location, the sun was at an elevation of 35.84°. The maximum elevation on that date would have been 38.04°, at 13:20pm.
As I understand it, the height of a rainbow’s arch is based on how high the sun is in the sky when the rainbow happens. Rainbows cannot occur when the sun is above an elevation of 42°. This means you will never see a classic rainbow around midday.
The flattest rainbows happen when the sun is still relatively high in the sky. The sun must be 42° or lower to see a rainbow at all. Rainbows that happen when the sun is at 42° are the flattest, and closest to the horizon.
The “tallest” rainbows happen during sunrise or sunset. Bows that occur when the sun is at its final 1° can span up to 42° in height opposite the sun!
So, to me, this looks like a flat(-ish) rainbow. Certainly the shallowest one I have ever seen.
Is this a flat(-ish) rainbow???
A mixture of sunshine & showers, as we paddled at leisure up ….. TO-DO
