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Wildfire Smoke Turns Sun Red: The Science Explained
17 Jul
Summary
- Smoke particles scatter longer wavelengths of light, tinting the sky red.
- Shorter light wavelengths normally scatter, making the sky appear blue.
- Atmospheric scattering also creates colorful sunrises, sunsets, and lunar eclipses.
Hazy orange skies and red-tinted suns are a direct result of smoke from wildfires, explained by atmospheric physics. Sunlight contains a spectrum of wavelengths, with red being longer and blue being shorter.
Normally, molecules in Earth's atmosphere scatter shorter, blue wavelengths, giving us a blue sky. However, wildfire smoke introduces larger particles that scatter longer, red wavelengths instead, causing the sky to appear red.
This phenomenon of atmospheric scattering affects more than just wildfire events. It's also responsible for the dramatic colors of sunrises and sunsets, as light travels through more atmosphere near the horizon. Furthermore, it causes the moon to appear crimson during a total lunar eclipse.
