Updated June 21, am. Smaller font Descrease article font size - A. Share this item on Facebook facebook Share this item via WhatsApp whatsapp Share this item on Twitter twitter Send this page to someone via email email Share this item on Pinterest pinterest Share this item on LinkedIn linkedin Share this item on Reddit reddit Copy article link Copy link. Story continues below advertisement. View image in full screen. View link ». View image in gallery mode. You might be wondering why today the sky has taken on an almost orange hue.
Related News. Leave a comment Comments. Sponsored content. Flyers More weekly flyers. Report an Error. And as clouds thicken, sunlight passing through the cloud will diminish or be blocked, giving the cloud a grey color. If there is no direct sunlight striking the cloud, it may reflect the color of the sky and appear bluish. Some of the most picturesque clouds occur close to sunrise and sunset when they can appear in brilliant yellows, oranges and reds.
The colors result from a combination of Rayleigh and Mie scattering. As light passes through the atmosphere, most of the shorter blue wavelengths are scattered leaving the majority of longer waves to continue. Therefore, the predominate color of sunlight changes to these longer wavelengths. Also, as light enters the atmosphere, it refracts with the greatest bend in its path near the earth's surface where the atmosphere is most dense. This causes the light's path through the atmosphere to lengthen, further allowing for more Rayleigh scattering.
As light continues to move though the atmosphere, yellow wavelengths are scattered leaving orange wavelengths. Further scattering of orange wavelengths leaves red as the predominate color of sunlight.
Therefore, near sunrise and sunset, a cloud's color is what sunlight color it receives after Rayleigh scattering. We see that sunlight's color due to Mei scattering which scatters all remaining wavelength colors equally. Sometimes, under direct sunlight, clouds will appear gray or dark gray against a blue sky or larger backdrop of white clouds. There are usually two reasons for this effect. This latter reason is why sunspots look dark. Brightness of the sun is based upon temperature and a sunspot's temperature is lower than the surrounding surface of the sun.
Relative to the surface of the sun, sunspots appear quite dark. However, if sunspots were isolated from the surrounding brightness, they would still be too bright to look at with the unprotected eye. The contrast in brightness between the two is what causes sunspots appear dark.
Earth Science Stack Exchange is a question and answer site for those interested in the geology, meteorology, oceanography, and environmental sciences. It only takes a minute to sign up. Connect and share knowledge within a single location that is structured and easy to search. Today, I was coming back from music school, and it was raining heavily. An hour after I came back, the sun started coming out from one side, and the sky wa very brighr yellow.
The lighting effects that came through all my windows were spectacular. Here are some images:. In this case I'd say it's a combination of Rayleigh scattering, Mie scattering and the angle of the sun. Rayleigh scattering is related to the chemical composition of the atmosphere and occurs when the particles causing the scattering are smaller in size than the wavelengths of radiation in contact with them this is why the sky appears blue most of the time. The yellow sky in this question is likely mostly owing to Mie scattering.
Mie scattering is caused by pollen, dust, smoke, water droplets the most likely culprit in this case , and other particles in the lower portion of the atmosphere. It occurs when the particles causing the scattering are larger than the wavelengths of radiation in contact with them. The angle of the sun and Raleigh scattering may also be at play, when the sun is low in the sky sunlight passes through more air than 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.
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