The Reason Why Sky Turns Soft Orange at Sunset

VIVA – The scenery at sunset is one of the best things to see. A setting sun is a beautiful orange color that's unrivaled, but how can a bright yellow ball of fire that's impossible to look at safely during the day suddenly become a soft, orange as it sinks from view?

The orange color of the sunset sky is due to the scattering of sunlight by the Earth's atmosphere. During the day, sunlight reaches the Earth's surface after passing through a relatively thin layer of the atmosphere.

However, during sunset, the light from the sun has to pass through a much larger portion of the atmosphere before reaching our eyes.

This atmospheric layer contains various gases and particles, including nitrogen and oxygen molecules, water vapor, and dust particles. When sunlight passes through this layer, it is scattered in all directions by these particles, and the shorter, blue wavelengths are scattered more easily than the longer, red wavelengths.

As a result, more of the red, orange, and yellow wavelengths can reach our eyes, giving the sunset its characteristic orange color.

The intensity and hue of the sunset can be affected by a variety of factors, including the amount of moisture or pollution in the air, as well as the presence of clouds or other atmospheric conditions.

Well, why isn't the sky purple? The answer is that if blue light with a short wavelength is scattered, then the sky should be purple, not blue.

That's because purple light has the shortest wavelength of all. It's just that human vision doesn't see purple very well, so the sky would still appear blue.