Storm Team Academy: What role does pollution play in our red sunsets?

SYRACUSE, NY (WSYR-TV)

The red sunsets are beautiful to see at the end of the day, but how do we get red sunsets? What role does pollution play in this?

Sunlight is broken up into the colors of the rainbow. Each color has a certain wavelength. Violet and blue have short wave lengths, and red and orange have longer wavelengths.

As the sun lowers the colors with the shorter wavelength are scattered and the red and orange colors with longer wavelengths are left behind.

So why does air pollution and other airborne particles like dust make our sunsets look even more red? Because they help scatter the blue light to really allow the deep hues of red and orange to reach our eye.

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