Why do sunsets and sunrises look so different? Isn’t it technically the same thing?
In: Earth Science
ELI5: temperature changes and differences in dust, moisture, clouds, etcetera change what we see on the ground!
Much more complex explanation: (I’m on mobile sorry for bad typing) sunsets aren’t blue because the water and nitrogen in the air cause Rayleigh scattering so most of the blue light gets filtered out and scattered (also why the sky is blue) but since the sun is low in the sky and therefore a ray of light spends more time in the atmosphere all of the blue light is stripped out. The colors we see in the sky are strictly due to more scattering of what’s left of the other colors and are due to different things like clouds and moisture and dust. Dust suspended in the sky is quite fine, so it’s actually somewhat transparent but only to certain wavelengths. Every element and combinations of elements has a well understood spectrum of what happens when light hits it. It will either absorb and in turn re-emit, reflect, transmit, or scatter. As the different types of dust and therefore a different combination of elements are in the sky as well as different moisture content, pressures, and temperatures (yes pressure and temperature do affect how light behaves) the sunset we see from the ground can be drastically different day to day and it’s also why sunrises and sunsets look different from each other. Source: I’m an optical engineer light do be my jam
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