Question:
What is the difference in colours of the sun observed during sunrise/sunset and noon ? Give explanation for each.
Solution:
At the time of sunrise or sunset, the position of the sun is very far away from us (Figure 16).
The sunlight travels longer distance through the atmosphere of the earth before reaching our eyes. Scattering of blue light is more than the
scattering of red light. As a result of this, more red light reaches our eyes than any other colour. Hence sunset and sunrise appear red.
During noon, the sun is overhead and sunlight travels less distance through the earth’s atmosphere to reach our eyes. In this case, the scattering
of almost all colours is very small. Hence, the sun appears white.