I keep seeing the reason why sky is blue that blue scatters more is because blue light has less or shorter wavelength than the other colors but why does it need to be shorter wavelength for it to scatter more, what does it have to do with scattering light?
In: Chemistry
It is wavelength closer to the size of the particle that scatters more. O and N atoms are around 0.3 nm in diameter and double that and we get 0.6 nm as the width of O2 and N2 in the atmosphere. Compare that to visible light with wavelengths of 380 nm (blue) to 750 nm (red)
If you have a lot of larger particles in the air larger than the wavelength of air sooth from a forest fire, sand from storms in deserts etc it is red that is closer in wavelength compared to blue. You can then get sky that look like [https://assets3.cbsnewsstatic.com/hub/i/r/2020/09/09/3db84590-7c45-413e-bd00-dbae9bc4eb7c/thumbnail/620×413/303c7cd232b6010c5422a57348f53726/2020-09-09t172116z-691218995-rc25vi9tjkgp-rtrmadp-3-usa-wildfires-oregon.jpg?v=83093a0dd27502f0a52cd68b1c5b8b6e](https://assets3.cbsnewsstatic.com/hub/i/r/2020/09/09/3db84590-7c45-413e-bd00-dbae9bc4eb7c/thumbnail/620×413/303c7cd232b6010c5422a57348f53726/2020-09-09t172116z-691218995-rc25vi9tjkgp-rtrmadp-3-usa-wildfires-oregon.jpg?v=83093a0dd27502f0a52cd68b1c5b8b6e)
We call scattering with particles larger than the wavelength for Mie scattering, it particles are smaller we call it Rayleigh scattering.
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