Beautiful Blue Sky
Did you notice how blue the skies were this morning? I sure did. Under normal circumstances, the skies generally appear blue thanks to how sunlight is absorbed and scattered in the atmosphere. Blue light has a shorter wavelength, which tends to scatter more effectively than longer wavelength light when we have a "clean" atmosphere.
Posted — UpdatedDid you notice how blue the skies were this morning? I sure did.
Under normal circumstances, the skies generally appear blue thanks to how sunlight is absorbed and scattered in the atmosphere. Blue light has a shorter wavelength, which tends to scatter more effectively than longer wavelength light when we have a "clean" atmosphere.
When we have a lot of humidity or pollution in the atmosphere, though -- like we often do during the summer months -- that changes the equation. Those particles are larger and tend to scatter all wavelengths of light more effectively, resulting in a lighter blue or even a white-ish sky, especially close to the horizon. (Since most of those particles tend to hang close to the ground, that effect is more noticeable low in the sky -- but we can still see some blue directly overhead.)
So, why all the blue today?
In a nutshell, we've really maxed out the "clean atmosphere" concept I mentioned above. The rains of the last couple of days have helped to wash the atmosphere clean of all the pollutants that had accumulated. We've also begun to draw in much drier air from the northwest, especially aloft. Both of those factors tend to "deepen" the blues in the sky colors we see.
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