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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.
As a result, the cloud base can vary from a very light to very dark grey depending on the cloud's thickness and how much light is being reflected or transmitted back to the observer. Thin clouds may look white or appear to have acquired the color of their environment or background. High tropospheric and non-tropospheric clouds appear mostly ...
A nephoscope emits a light ray, which strikes and reflects off the base of a targeted cloud. The distance to the cloud can be estimated using the delay between sending the light ray and receiving it back: distance = (speed of light × travel time) / 2
The picture on the right is shot through a polarizing filter: the polarizer transmits light that is linearly polarized in a specific direction. The blue color of the sky is a consequence of three factors: [17] the blackbody spectrum of sunlight coming into the Earth's atmosphere, Rayleigh scattering of that light off oxygen and nitrogen ...
Glint is only the moment when the light is reflected, but it can be seen far away due to the light strength, even from about 200 km distance. The visibility of distant features above the haze or cloud deck can be enhanced by contrast difference caused by the light reflected from the haze, from the sky just above horizon beyond and the shaded ...
Scattering adds the sky light as a veiling luminance onto the light from the object, reducing its contrast with the background sky light. Sky light usually contains more light of short wavelength than other wavelengths (this is why the sky usually appears blue), which is why distant objects appear bluish.
The particles scatter light from the sun and the rest of the sky through the line of sight of the observer, thereby decreasing the contrast between the object and the background sky. Particles that are the most effective at reducing visibility (per unit aerosol mass) have diameters in the range of 0.1-1.0 μm.
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]