Light Scattering In the Sky

Blue Skies, Sunsets, White Clouds, and even purple skies!

As light from the sun reaches our planet, it literally lights up the sky and makes so freaking colorful.  So, here is some of that.  What makes our sky blue and why are clouds white?  By the end of this, I hope to have convinced you that our sky is in fact purple, but it is just a lot more blue in the day. 

+ Wanna Watch a Video?

Hey there, below is a link to a video where I try to explain why our sky is blue and sunsets are red/orange. Give it a watch!







And if you CLICK HERE, you can see a concept trailer for the videos I hope to make soon.


+ Maybe Just See Some Photos:





The blue color of the sky occurs because bluewave lengths are smaller, and therefore interact with the atmosphere more increasing the blue intensity, 'I'.


The color of our sunsets is dominates by the fact that the intensity of a particular color of light falls off as it travels a further distance in our atmosphere. Since longer wavelengths (red/orange) don't interact as much, they 'travel' a shorter distance compared to shorter wavelengths (blue/violet).


More Photos to Come. Example: Clouds are white, because they filter light....better?

+ Perhaps some slides instead?

Here is a little slide show I made:







+ Maybe you'd like to know more about it:

As time goes, I will continue to add further details on the concepts presented in this window. Here are some potential things I will include:

  • Light outside the visible spectrum also scatters in our atmosphere
  • Derivation of the Rayleigh Scattering Term
    • Classical Version
    • Quantum Version
      • Wait, Quantum what now?
    • As a limit of Mie Scattering
  • Rayleigh Scattering In Different Scernarios
    • Astrophysics
    • ?
  • Mie Scattering
    • Derivation?
    • Other stuff