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Sky brightness refers to the visual perception of the sky and how it scatters and diffuses light. The fact that the sky is not completely dark at night is easily visible. If light sources (e.g. the Moon and light pollution ) were removed from the night sky , only direct starlight would be visible.
A colorful sky is often due to indirect sunlight being scattered off air molecules and particulates, like smog, soot, and cloud droplets, as shown in this photo of a sunset during the October 2007 California wildfires. Atmospheric optics is "the study of the optical characteristics of the atmosphere or products of atmospheric processes ....
In this band, degrees of polarization near 80% are typically reached. Degree of polarization in the Rayleigh sky at sunset or sunrise. The zenith is at the center of the graph. When the Sun is located at the zenith, the band of maximal polarization wraps around the horizon. Light from the sky is polarized horizontally along the horizon.
Diagram showing displacement of the Sun's image at sunrise and sunset Comparison of inferior and superior mirages due to differing air refractive indices, n. Atmospheric refraction is the deviation of light or other electromagnetic wave from a straight line as it passes through the atmosphere due to the variation in air density as a function of height. [1]
Scattering effects also partially polarize light from the sky and are most pronounced at an angle 90° from the Sun. Scattered light from the horizon travels through as much as 38 times the air mass as does light from the zenith, causing a blue gradient looking vivid at the zenith and pale near the horizon. [9]
View of the ocean with two ships: one in the foreground and one to the left of it on the horizon. Historically, the distance to the visible horizon has long been vital to survival and successful navigation, especially at sea, because it determined an observer's maximum range of vision and thus of communication, with all the obvious consequences for safety and the transmission of information ...
"This is why the sky appears blue on a nice sunny day with the sun high in the sky," Rossio said. ... the angle of the sun in the horizon yields more atmosphere and aerosols for which the light ...
The lower the Sun is beneath the horizon, the dimmer the sky (other factors such as atmospheric conditions being equal). When the Sun reaches 18° below the horizon, the illumination emanating from the sky is nearly zero, and evening twilight becomes nighttime. When the Sun approaches re-emergence, reaching 18° below the horizon, nighttime ...