BRYAN, Texas (KBTX) - In the midst of a foggy Thursday morning, an arc of white stretched above the horizon, catching the eye of many across the Brazos Valley. While similar to a rainbow, this phenomena is much rarer - it’s a diffraction of light known as the fogbow!

The fogbow is the rainbow’s ghostly cousin, and though they form in a similar fashion, they display a much different result. The most notable difference of course, is the absence of color.

Comparing a rainbow and a fogbow (kbtx)

The color contrast comes down to the size of the particles the sunlight bends through. Fog droplets are much smaller than raindrops, typically only 10 to 15 microns wide. The small nature of these drops are what cause diffraction to dominate over refraction. Diffraction is the spreading of light w

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