what makes the sky glow red at night or in the morning?

Answer 1

Everyone likes to label it as Rayleigh Scattering but still very few explain that term. The Sun emits pure white light. As the sun comes up or sets, the light has more air molecules to travel thru, giving a longer bend to the white light, the reds having a longer frequency, and due to the longer bend of the light from the amount of air, we see reds at sunrise and sunset. AS the Sun climbs higher, it goes thru less air to get to ours eyes. Hence the light is not refracted as much, less bend you might say, blues have a shorter wavelength, so we see blue. Notice on clear cloudless days, the sky is real blue in the middle around noon and appears whitish at the horizon. We are looking at light traveling away from us at the horizon so we see the white light as from the sun. On cloudy or foggy days, less blue because the white light is being filtered by the greyness of the clouds or fog.

Answer 2

Dust in the low part of the atmosphere disperses the blue part of the light waves and permits the pass of the red part of the spectrum. It explain that this phenomena is more frequent at sunset than in the morning, because during the night the air has less dust content (wind is quieter).

Answer 3

If you are refering to Shepherd's delight/warning, this if from Wikipedia....

"Weather systems typically move from west to east, and red clouds result when the sun shines on their undersides at either sunrise or sunset. At these two times of day, the sun's light is passing at a very low angle through a great thickness of atmosphere, the result of which is the absorption of most of the shorter wavelengths -- the greens, blues, and violets -- of the spectrum, and so sunlight is heavy at the red end of the spectrum. If the morning skies are red, it is likely that clear skies to the east permit the sun to light the undersides of moisture-bearing clouds coming in from the west. Conversely, in order to see red clouds in the evening, sunlight must have a clear path from the west in order to illuminate moisture-bearing clouds moving off to the east."

Answer 4

It is due to the light from the sun being slowed down by more atmosphere then when above the horizon, when the light has less to slow it down it turns the sky blue, when it is slowed down due to increased thickness of the atmosphere at both sunrise and sunset this changes the spectrum off light to show as red.

I hope you understand the above, it is difficult to write in layman's terms.

Answer 5

Absorption of the other wavelengths of light. The blues are filtered out as the light travels through more of the atmosphere at these times than when the sun is overhead.

Answer 6

The particles in the air bends the light to show one side of the light spectrum.The same with a rainbow,it gives the seven colors that white light is made up of because the light is bent wider that it is received

Answer 7

the angle and compostion of the suns particle waves as they penetrate and interact with the earths atmosphere the dustier the sky the redder the effect

Answer 8

it's the sun wen the sun rises it has a reddish glow when it sets it has these wonderful reds and oranges all mixed up

Answer 9

sunrays at a certain angel and reflecting off of dust particles. Without dust, we would never see a red sky at dawn or sunset.

Answer 10

sun rays being at a different angle to usual.