Sunday, October 30th - Photo Of The Week... This week's photo taken on Friday morning shows a spectacular sunrise over Palisade Mountain. While leaving for school that day my daughter asked, "Daddy, Why are sunsets and sunrises orange?" Sunsets often have a red or orange color to them. Sunlight (what we call "white light") is made up of all different colors of light, each having a different wavelength. Even the clearest air has many tiny particles suspended in it called "aerosols". These come from many sources, both natural and man-made; the soil, salt from the ocean, the burning of fossil fuels or vegetation. During a sunset, more red light is scattered toward you because of aerosols in the lower atmosphere, compared to the amount of blue or green light. Since, at sunset, sunlight is passing through a much longer path of the lower atmosphere than when the sun is overhead, the effect of the aerosols becomes much stronger. So, you end up seeing more red light that any of the other colors of light, and the sky appears red. |
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