5 REASONS WHY SUNSETS ARE RED.

red sky in the morning, sailors take warning. red sky at night, sailors delight.

Reasons

Scattering of sunlight by atmospheric particles:

As sunlight passes through the Earth's atmosphere, it is scattered by particles such as dust, water droplets, and molecules of gases like nitrogen and oxygen.

This causes the short-wavelength light, like blue and green, to be scattered more than the longer-wavelength light, like red and orange.

Rayleigh scattering:

Rayleigh scattering is a type of scattering that occurs when light interacts with particles that are much smaller than the wavelength of the light.

This type of scattering causes the short-wavelength light to be scattered more than the long-wavelength light, leading to the reddish color at sunset.

Mie scattering:

Mie scattering is a type of scattering that occurs when light interacts with particles that are about the same size as the wavelength of the light.

This type of scattering can cause the light to be scattered in all directions, making the sun appear red or orange at sunset.

Absorption of sunlight by atmospheric gases:

The Earth's atmosphere contains gases like ozone, water vapor, and carbon dioxide that can absorb certain wavelengths of sunlight.

This can cause the sun to appear red or orange at sunset as the absorbed light is not reflected back to the observer.

Increase in atmospheric thickness:

The sun's light has to travel through more of the Earth's atmosphere at sunset than it does at noon.

This causes more scattering and absorption of the sunlight, making the sun appear red or orange at sunset.

content supplied by author, text by AI.