Why does the sun appear red at sunrise?


At sunrise, the sun appears red because it remains below the horizon hence light from the sun passes through thicker layers of air and larger distances in the earth's atmosphere before reaching our eyes. During this time, most of the blue light rays and other shorter wavelengths rays are scattered away by the molecules of air and other fine particles in the atmosphere. Therefore, only red light, being of a higher wavelength reaches us which gives the reddish appearance of the sun at sunrise and also at sunset.

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Updated on: 10-Oct-2022

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