Rayleigh Scattering
- Scattering,
continued:
- Why is the sky blue?
- It's because of Rayleigh scattering - the selective scattering of the
shorter wavelengths of visible light (violet and
blue) by atmospheric gases.
![](graphics/table_rayleigh_mie.jpg)
- Note that Rayleigh scattering
involves much smaller scattering particles than
Mie scattering
- if there were no atmosphere, what
color would the sun look like?
|
![](graphics/rayleigh.free.gif)
![](graphics/rayliegh_schem.jpg) |