VARIOUS LIGHT

PHENOMENA
 HOW VARIOUS LIGHT
PHENOMENA OCCURS?
• The type of light or optical effect that results greatly
depends upon the type of particles the light encounters
and on the wavelength of the light:
• air, dust and haze, ice crystals, and water droplets, and
lastly with the mechanism of its occurrence.
FACTORS AFFECTING LIGHT PHENOMENA
• 1. Mechanisms - Particle/Molecule-light interactions responsible
for creating optical effects. These interactions include: reflection,
scattering, refraction and diffraction.
• 2. Air, Dust, Haze - Optical effects resulting from the interaction of
light with air, dust and haze particles. These effects include:
crepuscular rays, blue skies, blue haze and sunsets.
• 3. Ice Crystals - Optical effects resulting from the interaction of
light with ice crystals. These effects include: sundogs, sun pillars
and halos.
• 4. Water Droplets - Optical effects resulting from the interaction of
light with water droplets. These effects include: cloud iridescence,
rainbows and a silver lining along the edge of clouds.
SCATTERING OF LIGHT
RAYLEIGH SCATTERING OF LIGHT
• the scattering of light by the particles present in the
atmosphere. According to Rayleigh's scattering law, the
amount of scattering of the light is inversely
proportional to the fourth power of the wavelength.
From the relation between scattering and wavelength,
we understand that shorter wavelengths scatter more.
Since blue light has a lesser wavelength than red light it
scatters more.
SCATTERING OF LIGHT

• ⦁ When sunlight enters the atmosphere of the earth, the

atoms and molecules of different gasses present in the
air absorb the light. Then these atoms re-emit light in all
directions. This process is known as Scattering of light.

• ⦁ The atoms or particles that scatter light are called

scatterers
DISPERSION OF LIGHT

• When white light is passed

through a glass prism it
splits into its spectrum of
colours (in order violet,
indigo, blue, green, yellow,
orange and red) and this
process of white light
splitting into its
constituent colours is
termed as dispersion
LIGHT PHENOMENA

• 1. Mirage GRADED RECITATION:

• 2. CREPUSCULAR RAY
MONDAY – EMERALD
• 3. BLUE SKIES
TUESDAY – SAPPHIRE
• 4. RED-ORANGE SKY
• 5. PURPLE SUNSET
• 6. HALO
• 7. SUNDOG
• 8. SUN PILLAR
• 9. RAINBOW AND DOUBLE RAINBOW
• 10 WHITE
• 11. GRAY CLOUDS
 MIRAGES

• Mirages happen when the

ground is very hot and the air
is cool. The hot ground
warms a layer of air just
above the ground. When the
light moves through the cold
air and into the layer of hot
air it is refracted (bent)
CREPUSCULAR RAYS
• sun rays converging on the horizon.
• Crepuscular rays occur when objects
such as mountain peaks or clouds
partially shadow the sun's rays. The
name crepuscular means "relating to
twilight" and these rays are observed at
sunrise and sunset. Crepuscular rays
appear to diverge outward from the
setting sun, and are visible only when
the atmosphere contains enough haze
or dust particles so that sunlight in
unshadowed areas can be scattered
toward the observer.
BLUE SKIES AND BLUE HAZE

• resulting from selective scattering by air

molecules
• When sunlight enters the Earth’s
atmosphere, it gets scattered by the
atmospheric particles. In the spectrum of
white light, blue is the colour that has a
minimum wavelength. Hence, the blue
colour scatters the most and is scattered
in all directions by the tiny atmospheric
particles. This is the reason why the sky
appears blue.
SUNSETS APPEAR IN A VARIETY OF
COLORS
• The colors of the sunset result from a phenomenon
called scattering. Molecules and small particles in the
atmosphere change the direction of light rays,
causing them to scatter. Scattering affects the color of
light coming from the sky, but the details are
determined by the wavelength of the light and the
size of the particle.
RAYLEIGH • Rayleigh scattering occurs when the scattering particles
are small compared to the wavelength of light
SCATTERING interacting with it.

Mie scattering occurs when the particles are of the

MIE SCATTERING same size as wavelength of light being scattered.
Dust, pollen, water vapor, and smoke are common
Mie scattering particles. Mie scattering normally
occurs in the lower portion of the atmosphere.

NON SELECTIVE
This type of scattering happens when the particles
are much larger than the wavelength of light.
SCATTERING Common particles responsible for nonselective
scattering are water droplets and large dust
particles.
 PURPLE SUNSET
•
• After storms, hurricanes sky tends to appear
violet during sunset. "dust, pollution, water
droplets and cloud formations" can influence
the colors of the sky, too. Occasionally, pink
and purple will appear more often than red
and orange due in part to "the optical illusion
of the pink wavelengths lighting up the base
of the cloud (due to the low angle of the
sun's rays), and these pink clouds
superimposed on a dark blue sky. The
combination of pink and dark blue can make
the sky appear a deep purple."
ORANGE-RED SUNSET
• At sunrise or sunset, clouds
can take on a red or orange
colour. This is because during
sunrise and sunset, the Sun is
very low in the sky and so
light has to travel through
more of the atmosphere. As a
result more of the blue light is
scattered and deflected away
allowing more red and yellow
light to reach the Earth.
RED SUNSET
• entration of particles in the
atmosphere, the shorter wavelengths
of light (violet and blue) are scattered
away, resulting in a red sunset. Red
sunsets are often observed from a
beach because of the high
concentration of salt particles
suspended in the air over the oceans.
These particles effectively scatter
shorter wavelengths of light, producing
red sunsets. Dust and ash particles
injected into the atmosphere by
volcanic eruptions can also cause red
sunsets.
 Bigger particles like water
droplets within a cloud
scatter all wavelengths
with roughly the same
effectiveness. If we
consider that there are
millions of water droplets
in a cloud, the scattered
FORMATION OF WHITE light interacts and
CLOUDS combines to generate a
white colour.
22 DEGREE HALO
• a ring of light 22 degrees from the sun
or moon A halo is a ring of light
surrounding the sun or moon. Most
halos appear as bright white rings but
in some instances, the dispersion of
light as it passes through ice crystals
found in upper level cirrus clouds can
cause a halo to have color.
• A 22 degree halo develops when light
enters one side of a columnar ice
crystal and exits through another side.
The light is refracted when it enters the
ice crystal and once again when it
leaves the ice crystal.
 SUNDOGS
• Sundogs, also known as mock
suns or "parhelia", are a pair of
brightly colored spots, one on
either side of the sun.
• As sunlight passes through the
ice crystals, it is bent by 22
degrees before reaching our
eyes, much like what happens
with 22 degree halos. This
bending of light results in the
formation of a sundog.
• The difference between sundogs and halos
is the preferential orientation of the ice
crystals through which the light passes
before reaching our eyes. If the hexagonal
crystals are oriented with their flat faces
horizontal, a sundog is observed. If the
hexagonal crystals are randomly oriented,
a halo is observed
SUN PILLARS

• A sun pillar is a vertical shaft of light extending

upward or downward from the sun. Typically
seen during sunrise or sunset, sun pillars form
when sunlight reflects off the surfaces of
falling ice crystals associated with thin, high-
level clouds (like cirrostratus clouds). The
hexagonal plate-like ice crystals fall with a
horizontal orientation, gently rocking from side
to side as they fall.When the sun is low on the
horizon, an area of brightness appears in the
sky above (or below) the sun as sunlight is
reflected off the surfaces of these tipped ice
crystals.
LIGHT PILLARS

• This luminous optical

phenomenon can be seen
in many cold areas,
Vertical band or tall pillars
of light appear to shoot
into the sky. This is
formed when there’s a
reflection of light from
the sun and the moon
form various small ice
crystals suspended in the
air.
PRIMARY RAINBOW

• The sun must be behind you to see

a rainbow, and it must reflect off a
water droplets in the air

• As the droplets get smaller, red

weakens. In fine mist, all colors
except violet may disappear.
SECONDARY RAINBOWS
• Double rainbows are formed when
sunlight is reflected twice within a
raindrop with the violet light that
reaches the observer's eye coming
from the higher raindrops and the red
light from lower raindrops.
• This means the sequence of colours is
inverted compared to the primary
rainbow, with the secondary bow
appearing about 10 degrees above the
primary bow.