你知道吗:彩虹竟有12种颜色

Guess What? There Are Twelve Kinds Of Rainbows!

彩虹竟有12种颜色

Remember the mnemonic that helped you to memorize the order and colors of the rainbow? Well, you can forget it because as it turns out, not all rainbows are equal. They can vary drastically depending on the conditions under which they occur. A team led by atmospheric scientist Jean Ricard of the National Centre for Meteorological Research in Tolouse, France, has identified twelve rainbow 'flavors,' each with its own distinct characteristics.

还记得帮你记住彩虹顺序色彩(赤橙黄绿青蓝紫)那个口诀吗？现在就忘了它吧，因为彩虹可不止7种颜色。来自法国气象研究中心的Jean Ricard带领的研究组现在已证实彩虹共有12种颜色，每种颜色都有自己的特征。

The team began by identifying the four characteristics that can encompass all rainbows. There is, of course, the classic rainbow with the red band on top and the blue-violet on the bottom. Then there are the ones with the Supernumerary bows - Bright bands either at the top or bottom. In between some rainbows, you might notice Alexander’s bands, dark areas caused by less light being reflected. And finally on occasion, one may be lucky enough to witness a 'double rainbow' - One that features a normal bow and a second, fainter bow above, except with the colors reversed. Armed with this knowledge the team began analyzing hundreds of rainbow photos and grouping them in one of the four categories.

最初他们先就所有彩虹都有的四大特征进行对比。传统彩虹一般最上层是红色，底层则为蓝紫色。然而，在顶层和底层之间还有一条很亮的 “额外虹”。主虹和副虹之间的暗色区域还有条“亚历山大带”。运气好的话，副虹上方还偶尔会出现一条与副虹颜色对比强烈的“双虹”。基于这样的知识，该研究组分析了上百张彩虹图片，并按四大特征进行分类。

In addition to identifying 12 distinct rainbows, Ricard and his team also stumbled upon another discovery. They found that while the angle and size of raindrops do matter, the biggest determinant of rainbow colors is the sun's distance from the horizon. If the sun is further up in the sky, the colors will be largely blue and green. If it is closer to the horizon, only the red and orange will be visible.

在鉴定12种不同的彩虹时，Ricard和他的团队碰巧有了另一发现——虽然彩虹颜色依赖凝结水汽的排列角度和大小，但决定因素还是在于太阳和地平线的距离。太阳高挂时，彩虹会呈大片蓝色和绿色；而当太阳距地平线较近的时候，只能看到明显的红色和橙色。

Ricard's new classification system categorizes rainbows based on the following characteristics: number of colors, clarity, and the presence or absence of Alexander's Bands and Supernumerary bows. The researcher, who presented his findings at the American Geophysical Union in San Francisco, California, this past December, believes the simple categories will make it easy for both experts and novices to identify the kind of rainbow they are witnessing. Who knew rainbows were so complex?

Ricard主要按色彩数量、清晰度，是否有“亚历山大带”和“额外虹”这四个特征重新给彩虹归类。他在去年12月在美国地球物理学联合会上公布了这个发现并相信这个简单的归类方法对研究彩虹的专家和新手都同样适用。毕竟，谁曾想到彩虹会这么复杂呢？

译文属可可英语原创，仅供学习和交流使用，未经许可，请勿转载。