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Rayleigh scattering causes the blue color of the daytime sky and the reddening of the Sun at sunset. Rayleigh scattering (/ ˈ r eɪ l i / RAY-lee) is the scattering or deflection of light, or other electromagnetic radiation, by particles with a size much smaller than the wavelength of the radiation.
The Rayleigh sky model describes the observed polarization pattern of the daytime sky. Within the atmosphere, Rayleigh scattering of light by air molecules, water, dust, and aerosols causes the sky's light to have a defined polarization pattern. The same elastic scattering processes cause the sky to be blue.
It might seem like a simple question. But the science behind a blue sky isn't that easy. For starters, it involves something called the Rayleigh effect, or Rayleigh scattering. But that same ...
Scattering and absorption are major causes of the attenuation of sunlight radiation by the atmosphere. Scattering varies as a function of the ratio of particle diameters (of particulates in the atmosphere) to the wavelength of the incident radiation. When this ratio is less than about one-tenth, Rayleigh scattering occurs. (In this case, the ...
The color of light from the sky is a result of Rayleigh scattering of sunlight, which results in a perceived blue color. On a sunny day, Rayleigh scattering gives the sky a blue gradient, darkest around the zenith and brightest near the horizon.
Multiple-scattering effects of light scattering by particles are treated by radiative transfer techniques (see, e.g. atmospheric radiative transfer codes). The relative size of a scattering particle is defined by its size parameter x, which is the ratio of its characteristic dimension to its wavelength:
Particles in the air scatter short-wavelength light (blue and green) through Rayleigh scattering much more strongly than longer-wavelength yellow and red light. Loosely, the term crepuscular rays is sometimes extended to the general phenomenon of rays of sunlight that appear to converge at a point in the sky, irrespective of time of day. [3] [4]
Scientists have discovered a mysterious pulsating light—and they don’t know what it could be. It pulses at a rate of about once every 21 minutes, and has been doing so since at least 1988.