Weather Observation Tells Us About Earth’s Atmosphere

Our environment, which we call weather, happens because of the never-ending weather changes between solar heat and the ecological envelope that wraps around our planet. Weather systems, often called fronts can create an astonishing colorful sky. Weather observation tells us about earth's atmosphere, which is colorless. Where do these amazing colors come from?

As sunlight streams into our atmosphere, it strikes dust particles and air molecules, which diffuse or scatter the streams of light. Weather observation tells us these light 'waves' begin shining in many different directions. The full light spectrum contains all colors, but some are shorter in length than others. Orange and red waves are longer than some. The violet and blue shorter waves scatter easier than the longer waves. Because of this, a mix of violet blue and green scatter across the sky causing other colors. Together they mix to make what we see as the color blue. You'll notice though that the sky is not always the same shade of blue. In fact, occasionally the sky doesn't appear blue at all. How blue the sky appears depends upon the mix of water vapor and dust particles.