Search results
Results from the WOW.Com Content Network
The exact cause of green thunderstorms is still unknown, but it could be due to the combination of reddened sunlight passing through very optically thick clouds. Yellowish clouds may occur in the late spring through early fall months during forest fire season. The yellow color is due to the presence of pollutants in the smoke.
Scattering and absorption are major causes of the attenuation of sunlight radiation by the atmosphere. During broad daylight, the sky is blue due to Rayleigh scattering, while around sunrise or sunset, and especially during twilight, absorption of irradiation by ozone helps maintain blue color in the evening sky. At sunrise or sunset ...
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]
A sprite over Southeast Asia as seen from space.. Sprites or red sprites are large-scale electric discharges that occur in the mesosphere, high above thunderstorm clouds, or cumulonimbus, giving rise to a varied range of visual shapes flickering in the night sky.
This is an accepted version of this page This is the latest accepted revision, reviewed on 16 January 2025. Visible mass of liquid droplets or frozen crystals suspended in the atmosphere "Nephology" redirects here. Not to be confused with Nephrology. For other uses, see Cloud (disambiguation). Cloudscape over Borneo, taken by the International Space Station Part of a series on Weather ...
Sun dogs are red-colored at the side nearest the Sun; farther out the colors grade through oranges to blue. The colors overlap considerably and are muted, never pure or saturated. [5] The colors of the sun dog finally merge into the white of the parhelic circle (if the latter is visible). [6]
Rayleigh scattering of sunlight in Earth's atmosphere causes diffuse sky radiation, which is the reason for the blue color of the daytime and twilight sky, as well as the yellowish to reddish hue of the low Sun. Sunlight is also subject to Raman scattering, which changes the rotational state of the molecules and gives rise to polarization ...
The Rayleigh sky causes a clearly defined polarization pattern under many different circumstances. The degree of polarization however, does not always remain consistent and may in fact decrease in different situations. The Rayleigh sky may undergo depolarization due to nearby objects such as clouds and large reflecting surfaces such as the ocean.