Is it possible to see rainbows from planes?

Generally rainbows from a pilot's perspective are “"rain-rings” - that is they form a complete circle. It is quite common to see a full round rainbow surrounding the shadow of ones aircraft on a nearby cloud. read more

Yes indeed it is possible to see rainbows from airplanes! In fact, you can see a full circle rainbow a lot clearer than when observing one from the ground. This image was taken last year over West-Central Texas while flying with a friend of mine. read more

Yes. it is possible to see the full-circle of a rainbow if your vantage point is high enough or if you are close enough to the rain droplets that are creating the rainbow. Note that airplanes are so high up that what people usually see out the window are optical glories, which are physically different from rainbows and have a different color pattern. read more

The lower the sun, the higher the top of the rainbow. If you could get up high enough, you’d see that some rainbows continue below the horizon seen from closer to sea-level. Mountain climbers sometimes see more of a full-circle rainbow, though even a high mountain isn’t high enough to show you the whole circle. read more