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Crepuscular rays are noticeable when the contrast between light and dark is most obvious. Crepuscular comes from the Latin word crepusculum, meaning "twilight". [2] Crepuscular rays usually appear orange because the path through the atmosphere at dawn and dusk passes through up to 40 times as much air as rays from a high Sun at noon.
These anticrepuscular rays appear to converge at the antisolar point, as viewed from an aircraft above the clouded ocean.. In some cases, sunbeams may extend across the sky and appear to converge at the antisolar point, the point on the celestial sphere opposite of the Sun's direction.
Although the solar corona is a source of extreme ultraviolet and X-ray radiation, these rays make up only a very small amount of the power output of the Sun (see spectrum at right). The spectrum of nearly all solar electromagnetic radiation striking the Earth's atmosphere spans a range of 100 nm to about 1 mm (1,000,000 nm).
Many of these appear near the Sun or Moon, but others occur elsewhere or even in the opposite part of the sky. Among the best known halo types are the circular halo (properly called the 22° halo ), light pillars , and sun dogs , but many others occur; some are fairly common while others are extremely rare.
We also see the Rayleigh effect at play in: -Sunsets where the sky is red.Light has to pass through a larger part of the atmosphere when the sun is lower on the horizon. Red, orange and yellow ...
Green flash occurs because the atmosphere causes the light from the Sun to separate, or refract, into different frequencies. Green flashes are enhanced by mirages, which increase refraction. A green flash is more likely to be seen in stable, clear air, when more of the light from the setting sun reaches the observer without being scattered.
This phenomenon leaves the Sun's rays, and the clouds they illuminate, abundantly orange-to-red in colors, which one sees when looking at a sunset or sunrise. For the example of the Sun at zenith, in broad daylight, the sky is blue due to Rayleigh scattering, which also involves the diatomic gases N 2 and O 2.
Light rays coming from the zenith take the shortest-possible path (1 ⁄ 38) through the air mass, yielding less scattering. Light rays coming from the horizon take the longest-possible path through the air, yielding more scattering. [11] The blueness is at the horizon because the blue light coming from great distances is also preferentially ...