Why does the sun appear red at sunset?


At the time of sunset, the sun 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 scattered the least and reaches our eye gives the reddish appearance of the sun at sunset.

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Updated on: 10-Oct-2022

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