Any idea about a natural phenomenon that produces colors in the sky??

Question

I'm doing a paper on this subject, and I have to talk about 3 phenomenons that produce colors in the sky...I found Aurora Borealis and rainbows but i need a third one...any ideas??

Please help!!

thanks

Answer 1

How about the one that makes the sky blue?

When light passes through a gas with particles much smaller than the wavelength of the light (such as the nitrogen and oxygen molecules in the air), bluer colors of light are scattered much more than redder colors. The air scatters blue light from the Sun in all directions, so we see blue when we look into the sky. This is also why sunsets are red -- the blue light has been scattered away. This type of scattering is called Rayleigh Scattering.

A picture is worth a thousand words: http://boojum.as.arizona.edu/~jill/EPO/Solarsystem/blue_sky.gif

On the other hand, when light travels through particles much larger than the wavelength of the light, such as droplets in a rain cloud, scattering is wavelength-independent. This is why clouds are white -- all colors are being scattered equally. This is called the Tyndall Effect.

Other options would be
the "Green Flash": http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Green_flash ,
"Sun dogs": http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sun_dog ,
and "Sun pillars": http://www.atoptics.co.uk/halo/pillar.htm .

Good luck!

Answer 2

how about the atmosphere that's what turns the sky blue when the sun is out!!If we didn't have an atmosphere we would have a night sky around the sun

Answer 3

Sunrise and sunset - both produce reds, oranges, and yellows (and right at sunrise and sunset for a split second you can also get the "green flash").

Answer 4

Hi. Meteors, lightening.