A group of professors has launched an online campaign to have Guinness World Records recognize a rainbow over Taiwan last week as the world’s longest visible rainbow.
Chou Kun-hsuan (周昆炫), a professor at Chinese Culture University’s Department of Atmospheric Science, said the department is trying to collect at least 36,000 photographs from the public to document the rainbow’s appearance from 6:57am to 3:55pm on Thursday last week.
He said the photographs would be used to create a “rainbow clock” to prove to the Guinness World Records committee that the longest-lasting rainbow took place in Taiwan.
Photo: Lu Chun-wei, Taipei Times
The team is on a mission to compile a world-class profile for the rainbow, Chou said, inviting the public to get involved in the campaign to help Taiwan become part of meteorological history.
Most rainbows last for less than an hour. The current Guinness record for the longest-lasting rainbow of six hours was set in 1994 in Sheffield, England.
Chou wants to provide ample evidence to prove that the rainbow he and others saw was truly unique and surpassed the existing record.
“We need to be fully prepared and provide ironclad evidence in case of any doubt about the authenticity of the rainbow,” he said.
A rainbow clock based on the 36,000 pictures should be able to create an effect similar to time-lapse photography that shows second-to-second movements of the rainbow during those nine hours, Chou said.
The department has so far compiled 540 photographs from its own cameras, which are only able to produce a “minute-based clock,” Chou said.
“The duration of the rainbow caught us by surprise,” he said.
His team only recorded the rainbow with minute-by-minute photographs rather than video, because they never expected it to last so long, he said.
Trying to fill in the gaps, Chou said he and other faculty and students are soliciting as many pictures as possible to prepare for a strict examination by Guinness inspectors.
According to the team, the most vital time frame for rainbow photographs is between 11am and 1pm, when the high position of the sun made last week’s rainbow more difficult to observe and thus could draw doubts over whether it was still there.
Even if the campaign fails, Chou said it would still be worthwhile to keep a scientific record of the rainbow that is as comprehensive as possible, because very few studies of rainbows in Taiwan have been conducted.
“It is so rare that chances for such a rainbow are lower than someone being struck by lightning twice in a row,” he said.
Ultimately, Chou said he hoped to introduce Taipei as a “rainbow city” to the world, because weather conditions and the terrain are ideal for rainbows to form around the university’s campus in the Yangmingshan area.
The key for long-lasting rainbows is moderate seasonal winds and hilly terrain that help accumulate just the right amount of moisture, he said.
“Why would we not want to make Taiwan a destination of colors?” he said.
“If Iceland is known for auroras, Taiwan can do the same for long-lasting rainbows,” he said. “Plus, we have more colors than they do.”
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