JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – In my humble opinion, this week we had some sunsets for the record. The sun filled the sky with purple, red, orange and yellow for just a few minutes several days before it was swallowed by the night.
We don’t get a show like that every day, but when we do, I hope you take a moment to stop and enjoy the view. A few of our SnapJAX photographers captured it beautifully.
I wanted to understand why sunset colors like that can happen, so I talked with News4JAX meteorologist Katie Garner.
“The colors of the sunset result from a phenomenon called scattering. Molecules and small particles in the atmosphere change the direction of light rays, causing them to scatter,” Garner said.
She explained that scattering affects the color of light coming from the sky. The short-wavelength blue and violet are scattered by molecules in the air much more than other colors of the spectrum. This is why blue and violet light reaches our eyes from all directions on a clear day. But because we can’t see violet very well, the sky appears blue.
Scattering also reveals why the colors are so brilliant at sunrise and sunset.
Garner explained when the sun is low on the horizon, sunlight moves through more air at sunset and sunrise than during the day when the sun is higher in the sky. More atmosphere means more molecules to scatter the violet and blue light away from your eyes.
If the path is long enough, all of the blue and violet light scatters out of your line of sight. The other colors continue on their way to your eyes. This is why sunsets are often yellow, orange and red.
Red apparently has the longest wavelength of any visible light, the sun is red when it’s on the horizon, where its extremely long path through the atmosphere blocks all other colors.
So there’s the scientific story behind your beautiful pictures and more about the phenomena that bring those brilliant sunsets that end the day with a huge wow factor.