overlay awan have a color with a predominance of white when the sky is clear. Why color tend to be white?
Although white when the atmosphere is clear, the clouds will turn dark when it is about to rain.
The influence of cloud color cannot escape the light emitted by the Sun, which is the central star of the solar system. The even distribution of sunlight makes the white appearance of the clouds so distinctive.
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When light passes through clouds, it interacts with water droplets that are much larger than the atmospheric particles in the sky, quoted from the UK’s BMKG website, Met Office.
Sunlight or ‘visible light’ can be thought of as a wave and part of the electromagnetic spectrum.
Each color has a different wavelength; Blue light has the shortest wavelength at 400 nanometers and red light has the longest wavelength at 700 nanometers.
Smaller particles can propagate shorter wavelengths more efficiently. When sunlight reaches atmospheric particles, blue light is scattered more strongly than other colors, giving the impression of a blue sky.
When it reaches the clouds, sunlight encounters larger particles, namely millions of water droplets that collect as a result of evaporation. These waters propagate all wavelengths with approximately equal effectiveness.
Quoted from Bold Method, this scattered light interacts and combines to produce white color. The result is as we see; white clouds with blue sky background.
Sometimes gray, sometimes orange
However, not infrequently the appearance of the clouds turns a bit gray. According to the Met Office, clouds appear gray because some of them are exposed to only a small amount of light from the sun.
The same scattering pattern applies in this shade of gray; when scattered within the cloud, the light is usually sent back up, or out to the sides of the cloud, making the top and sides of the cloud whiter than the bottom which receives less light.
When you meet rain clouds that have larger grains, more sunlight is scattered. This allows less light from the Sun to reach the bottom of the cloud as seen from Earth.
The effect is a gray rain cloud.
Meanwhile, the top of the cloud remains white because it gets constant light. The proof can be seen when you are on the plane. Look out the window when you are above the clouds, you will see that the tops of all the clouds are brilliant white.
Why orange?
When the sun rises or sets, the clouds can be red or orange or orange. This occurs when the Sun is very low on the horizon as it sets. Light also has to pass through more atmosphere.
As a result, more blue light is scattered and bent, while more red and yellow light reaches Earth. As a result, the orange color is the favorite color of the twilight enthusiasts.
(can/lth)
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