The Colors of Sunrise and Why the Sky is Blue

When you wake up in the morning and see the sun peeking over the horizon, have you ever wondered why the sky is such a beautiful hue of pink and orange? Or why, when you're at a high elevation, the sky looks like a deep blue? Read on to find out!

The Colors of Sunrise:

Have you ever noticed that the colors of sunrise and sunset are never quite the same? That's because the sunlight has to travel through more atmosphere when the sun is lower on the horizon. The longer the sunlight has to travel, the more scattered it becomes. The pink and orange colors are caused by a particular type of scattering called Rayleigh scattering. This type of scattering occurs when light waves hit particles that are much smaller than their wavelength. The red, orange, and yellow colors are least scattered, while violet and blue are most scattered.

Why The Sky Is Blue:

The blueness of the sky is also caused by scattering, but a different type called Mie scattering. In this type of scattering, light waves hit particles that are about the same size as their wavelength. Water droplets in clouds cause Mie scattering, which is why clouds are white. When there are lots of small water droplets in the atmosphere, they scatter blue light more than other colors. That's why the sky is blue most of the time!

At higher elevations, there is less oxygen and water vapor in the air to scatter sunlight. This allows light waves to travel for longer periods of time without being scattered as much. The blue light waves are scattered more than other colors because they are shorter than red light waves. That's why when you look at the sky from a high mountain peak, it appears to be a deep blue color!

Next time you see a beautiful sunrise or sunset, or find yourself at a high elevation, you'll know just what causes those unique colors! Thanks for reading!