#rayleight

This is a photo of a beautiful crescent Moon above Mount Canigou in the Pyrenees Mountains. Making this photo even more spectacular is the crimson horizon; a result of Rayleigh scattering. At Sunset and Sunrise, when the Sun is low on the horizon, light must travel further through the atmosphere before it reaches your eyes- because of this increase in path length, more light is reflected and scattered. As a result, the colour of visible light appears to change. This occurs simply because the shorter wavelength colours like blue and green are being preferentially scattered from our view. What remain are the longer wavelengths colours (orange and red) so this is what we see here.

But wait, there’s more!

Mount Canigou, although seen clearly in the background of this image, cannot normally be seen from the photographer’s vantage point. However, when the atmosphere is exceptionally clear, as it is here, the highest summits (>1.6km) can be seen. This is a result of the interaction of light through thermal inversions. The seawater here is colder than the air and as a result, the sunlight passing through the lower atmosphere is refracted in a downward direction. Consequently, the image of a distant object is displaced upward and can now be seen.

-Jean

Photographer: Bruno Carrias

To learn more about the refraction of light, try these links:

Made simple: http://bit.ly/SVNtHN

It's our dear friend Rayleigh in volume 3.

BY: EWIM

OH MY BRO!!! THIS IS SO BEAUTIFUL AND TRUE LMAO MAKE ME THE DAY XD AHAHAHAHAHAHHA. THIS FOREVER^