This photo of a remarkable rainbow was taken in Belle Plagne in the French Alps on 3 April 2003.

If you look carefully at the image (there is an enhanced image below which might or might not help) you can see two rainbows: one the right way up, the other upside down, and the two rainbows touching. (Note the tangent between the two arcs is not quite horizontal: it's tilted a few degrees clockwise.)

This fine display was caused by fine ice particles thrown up by a snow cannon and was mid morning when the sun was just coming over the mountains. The rainbows were seen looking towards the sun through the mist of ice particles with the sun at the centre of the lower rainbow. (This phenomenon is similar to when the sun has a halo when there is a fine icy cloud very high in the sky.) There was actually a more prominent rainbow inside the lower one in the picture.

The lower rainbow is tangent to the inverted rainbow, with the bands overlapping and red mapping to red etc.

Explanation of this bizarre phenomenon can be found by clicking here.

Andrew