Explain why the sky is blue and the sunset is red?

(30)

The red sunset and blue sky are common nature phenomena. The reason why it is
so is best explained by the Tyndall Effect and Rayleigh Scattering, both discovered
during the 19th century, P.K Raghuprasada. (2017).

The blue colour of the sky was originally attributed by scientists to the Tyndall effect.
Described by John Tyndall in 1859, this effect is a preferential scattering of shorter
wavelength blue light by particulate matter (particles 40–900 nm in size, the
wavelength of visible light being 400–750 nm) in the atmosphere. The longer
wavelength spectra of sun’s light such as red and yellow have the ability to course
through these particles thus we see sky as being blue, Y. Ji. (2014).

In experiments to prove the above explanation he gradually filled a simple glass tube
(simulating the sky) with smoke the beam of light (simulating the sun) appeared to be
blue from the side but red from the far end. Tyndall realised that the colour of the sky
is a result of light from the sun scattering around particles in the upper atmosphere,
in what is now known as the ‘Tyndall effect’. He thought that the light scattered off
particles of dust or water vapour in the atmosphere, like the smoke particles in the
tube. As the sun gets lower in the sky white light begins to reach the atmosphere at a
different angle. The angle means that the light we see passes through more
atmosphere. By the time it reaches us the blue light has already scattered off,
leaving the longer frequency red light to be seen thus in the experiment by Tyndall
red light was seen at the far end of the glass tube, Tyndall J. (1855–1872).

The scientific explanation of related observations such as why near the horizon the
sky appears less blue and at dawn and dusk the sun and the sky appear orange-red
is also attributed to the same scattering effect. The more scattering of blue light by
the increased amount of particles in the air closer to the earth is given as the reason.
The latter effect is attributed to “rescattering” of blue light so that the orange and red
are accentuated.

The Tyndall effect was discarded later as scientists could not explain why the sky
does not appear bluer by the increased amounts of water vapour and dust in rainy
conditions. And, after the sky is cleared of dust and particles, the sky does appear
bluer, not less. Further study by Lord Rayleigh discovered that the scattered light
energy is proportional to 1/λ4, for finer particles (particle size below 40nm), Yan Ji.
(2015).

Based on these studies, the current explanation is that the scattering of blue light is
due to the oxygen and nitrogen in the air, rather than the particulate matter. Thus,
the shorter wavelength blue light is scattered by these molecules, whereas the
longer wavelength yellow and red pass through relatively unaffected. Larger particles
in the atmosphere such as water vapour are credited with scattering of light of all
wavelengths, G. Mie, (1908) and this is called Mie scattering, named after the
German Physicist Gustav Mie. Due to this scattering of light of all wavelengths, the
clouds at sunset appear gray/white while the rest of the sky appears yellow-red due
to Rayleigh scattering

Although the scattering was one of the atmosphere actions on sun light to explain
the blue sky as well as red sunset, the refraction of sun light by atmosphere can be
used to explain this. Refraction is the change in direction of a wave due to a change
in its transmission medium, which observed when a wave passes from one medium
to another at any angle other than 0° from the normal, and with a given refractive
index to a medium with another at an oblique angle. At the boundary between the
media, the wave's phase velocity is altered, usually causing a change in direction. Its
wavelength increases or decreases but its frequency remains constant. The
refractive index n of an optical medium is a dimensionless number that describes
how light, or any other radiation, propagates through that medium. It is defined as
n=c/v. (c the speed of light in vacuum, v the speed of light in the substance) David
W. Ward, Keith A. Nelson, and Kevin J. Webb, (2005).

Given that, refraction principle states that sun lights refracted by outer spherical
atmosphere, which can successfully to explain the red sunrise, blue sky, and red
sunset nature light colour phenomena. Before the sun light enters the spherical
atmosphere, it was refracted at the spherical atmosphere interface. The sun lights
enter atmosphere at different angles, and were refracted to different colour and
different direction light before scattering by the inner atmosphere. So the red sun and
blue sky was due to the refraction of sun light by atmosphere. In conclusion, Yan Ji
(2017) says the red sunrise, blue sky, and red sunset were due to the refraction of
sun lights by outer spherical atmosphere, which to give different angles, different
colour, and different directions light, at different day time. The blue sky was the
refracted blue light focus on watcher on daytime. The red sunrise and red sunset
was the refracted red sun light to watcher on morning or evening. So the sun lights
refraction by outer spherical atmosphere display the beautiful red sunrise, blue sky,
and red sunset. The “energy attract force equation” can be used to explain these
earth spherical atmosphere refraction phenomena.

Although Rayleigh Scattering seems to be the most reasonable and acceptable

explanation for the phenomena, there are still some critics with somewhat valid
theories to explain the blueness of the sky and why sunset is red. P.K
.Raghuprasada (2017) argued that if blue light is preferentially “scattered” by the
molecules (or particulates), then more molecules closer to the earth at horizon
should make the sky appear deeper blue, not less. And, if the blue colour is
scattered all through the atmosphere, then the clouds should appear blue and not
white, as we are looking at the clouds through layers of the atmosphere .

PK Raghuprasada (2017) also went on to say that, Ozone is situated in a region of

the atmosphere in the middle part of the Stratosphere, between 10 and 50 km, like
an envelope around the earth. This layer of ozone can impart a blue colour in at least
two ways. First, the natural colour of ozone gas is a light blue; one could argue that a
column of such gas or innumerable layers of the gas when viewed as a whole might
appear even bluer. Also, the ambient temperature in the Stratosphere is cold enough
so that some of this ozone may turn into a liquid and hence impart a deeper blue
hue. It is also known that the pale blue colour of ozone gas turns to a deep blue
black when it becomes solid at even lower temperatures. Thus, the ozone layer of
the Stratosphere will appear blue of different degrees, depending on the prevailing
temperature in each region, including a deep blue-black in the poles. Similar
explanations will account for the deep blue colour of sky in pristine locations in
nature (such as the forests) and increasingly lighter blue to gray shades in dusty
locations. The orange-red appearance of sunsets and sunrises is due to the Sun’s
rays traversing through the thick layers of dust close to the earth, and in the process
the dust particles progressively allowing the longer-wavelength rays such as yellow
and red preferentially to pass.

In conclusion, the phenomena may be explained by various scholars in different

ways but the most relied on and trusted is Rayleigh scattering .This could however
change with the recent and ongoing discoveries being made by the scientists of
today for example P.K Raghuprasada (2017) whose theory is factual and the aspect
should therefore be approached with an open mind.
References
1. David W. Ward, Keith A. Nelson, and Kevin J. Webb, (2005). On the physical

origins of the negative index of refraction. New Journal of Physics .7, 213

2. G. Mie, (1908). Ann. Phys. 330, 377

3. Puthalath Koroth Raghuprasada. (2017). VC 2017 Physics Essays

Publication. [http://dx.doi.org/10.4006/0836-1398-30.1.116]

4. See http://.albany.edu/faculty/rgk/atm101/ozmeas.htm for ozone

measurement in the poles in the winter versus in late spring.

5. Smith, Glenn S. (2005).Human colour vision and the unsaturated blue colour

of the daytime sky. Am. J. Phys. 73(7), 590-597

6. Tyndall J. (1855–1872). Journals of John Tyndall Vol. 3, 1855–1872

7. Weather (May 2009), Vol. 64, No. 5 122Tyndall’s 1859 interrogation of nature

8. Yan Ji. (2014). the Attract Force Equation of Energy. American Journal of

Modern Physics. 3(6), 224-226

9. Yan Ji. (2015), Red Sunrise, Blue Sky, and Red Sunset: the Light Refraction

of Earth Atmosphere.