What Causes The Sun To Be Red?
When smoke is thick, it can cause brilliant red sunsets and sunrises. Small smoke particles scatter blue light. So, as the sun sets and its rays pass through the smoke plume, all the blue lights are scattered out of the path between the setting sun and your eyes, leaving only the red and orange colors. This results in the sun having a bright red color.
Another possible reason for the Sun being red during a sunset or sunrise is that During sunrise and sunset, light has to travel longer distances to reach the observer. Loss of energy due to scattering is more for high-frequency waves. Longer wavelength wave has minimum loss due to scattering and can travel long distances. Red color has a longer wavelength, and its intensity reaches the observer is more compared to other colors. Hence the sun appears red during sunrise and sunset.
Light is a form of electromagnetic energy that does not need matter to propagate. We can characterize this energy by its wavelength, which is the distance along a wave from one crest to another. Our eyes are sensitive to light with wavelengths between approximately 0.4 to 0.7 microns. Blue colors have shorter wavelengths, while red colors have longer ones.
When light interacts with particles suspended in air, it can be scattered or absorbed. The energy that is scattered causes a change in the direction of the light path. The amount of light that is being scattered is a function of the size of the particle relative to the wavelength of the light falling on the particle. While all colors are scattered by air molecules, violet and blue are scattered most. The sky looks blue, not violet, because our eyes are more sensitive to blue light.