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Name: d minott
Status: N/A
Age: N/A
Location: N/A
Country: N/A
Date: 1993 - 1999
Question:
Why does the sun set apear to be red and the sunrise apear to be yellow when there is no difference between the two accept that they are on different sides of the earth.

Replies:
This is a very interesting question and although I have never really thought about this I would guess that it must have something to do with the scattering properties of the particles in the atmosphere. Now the atmosphere would have different properties wthin the terminator the terminator is the place where night changes into day. The temperature variation within the terminator might be quite large. The motion of the molecules in the atmosphere would be different for the cold nighttime atmosphere (sunrise) and the warm hazy polluted atmosphere we find particularly near the end of the day (sunset) if it is strictly a TEMPERATURE effect then going to a desert climate or on the ocean (for instance in a boat) would this person see the sunrise and sunset the same. my guess is the land mass and civilization imposes an effect (pollution) as well. Overnight the dust and pollution and water vapor tends to cool and condense and during the warm day these things are again introduced into the atmosphere. targetmaker


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