At sunrise and sunset, the sky changes color because light has to travel through more air. Imagine a ball of light coming from the sun, when it’s high in the sky, the path is short, so we see blue. But when the sun is low on the horizon, the light has to go all the way around the Earth, and blue light gets scattered away, leaving behind warm colors like red and orange.
Why Does It Happen?
Light is made of different colors, and each color behaves differently in the air. Blue light bounces off molecules more than other colors, which makes it disappear, but that leaves the other colors to shine through.
Examples
- During a sunset, red and pink clouds appear because blue light has been scattered away by the thick layer of atmosphere.
- Rainy weather can make sunsets even more vivid because water droplets add extra color to the sky.
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Categories: Science · light,atmosphere,sunrise,sunset,scattering