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What Determines Sky's Colors At Sunrise And Sunset?
ScienceDaily (Nov. 15, 2007) — The colors of the sunset result from a phenomenon called scattering, says Steven Ackerman, professor of meteorology at UW-Madison. Molecules and small particles in the atmosphere change the direction of light rays, causing them to scatter.
Scattering affects the color of light coming from the sky, but the details are determined by the wavelength of the light and the size of the particle. The short-wavelength blue and violet are scattered by molecules in the air much more than other colors of the spectrum. This is why blue and violet light reaches our eyes from all directions on a clear day. But because we can't see violet very well, the sky appears blue.
Scattering also explains the colors of the sunrise and sunset, Ackerman says.
“Because the sun is low on the horizon, sunlight passes through more air at sunset and sunrise than during the day, when the sun is higher in the sky. More atmosphere means more molecules to scatter the violet and blue light away from your eyes. If the path is long enough, all of the blue and violet light scatters out of your line of sight. The other colors continue on their way to your eyes. This is why sunsets are often yellow, orange, and red.”
And because red has the longest wavelength of any visible light, the sun is red when it’s on the horizon, where its extremely long path through the atmosphere blocks all other colors.
SOURCE
I hope everyone has a great weekend and have a great time sky watching!!!
Jess
Cloud Stalker
30 comments:
Great shots, Jess. Like how you're explaining stuff! Leave it to the Meso Mommas, we'll teach 'em.
Beautiful and interesting info.
THAT last photo of the sun is a great shot of the coloring! love them all!
Beautiful and interesting post! Like that last shot:) My SWF is posted HERE. Have a great day!~
All cool, but I love the first shot - like the boiling masses above an invisible fire. Very nicely captured.
awesome photos!!! interesting information! Happy SWF!
Jess: You and do add so much to Sky Watch, thanks for the great photos and the explanations.
That third one is particularely nice with the sinking fireball.
Well, I hope the quit testing you soon and just let you do your thing!
Your photos are very beautiful,and the information is great!
Beautiful photos. Love the explaination.
I loved to see your red sun!
fascinating post. thanks for the explanation. love your sky shots -- beautiful!
WOW! Gorgeous series! I love the first one, fantastic colors!
Beautiful photos and an informative post! I'd never actually thought much about the "why" of it, just knew that it was so. I guess the same would apply to moonlight to, eh? Explains the "Blood Moon"...
I'm making my SWF debut this week with First Quarter. Hope you enjoy it!
Interesting SWF. Great photos and wonderful colors :-)
Oh nice... great information... perfect read.
That first shot is super cool!!
Thanks for the post!
Have a wonderful weekend!
~Michele~
Mountain Retreat
There's a real wave and flow of colours in these skies! Stunning!
Stunning photos!! Thanks for the information too!
Fantastic photos and always interesting to learn more about why weather does what it does in the process of giving us great views for photographs.
Very varied and stunning images and a very educational post.
All beautiful, especially the first
Beautiful shots and thanks for the information on why/how the sky colors. :-)
Oh great shots and cool one. TC
Nice SWF.
I like the photos.
Thanks for the visit,
Troy and Martha
Great shots! Awesome color in all of them.
Thanks for the information, I didn't know.
And beautiful photos, I loved them.
Awesome captures!
Beautiful shots. I enjoyed the lesson in sunrise and sunset colors, too. Thank you. :)
Some truly wonderful photos. One better than the next. Thanks! In case you have time to drop by, I've posted a skywatch photo with peach-colored clouds.
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