Why is the sky blue? It's the age-old weather question, and this week, WAAY 31 Morning Meteorologist Grace Anello is here to answer it for you.
It's called Rayleigh Scattering, and it all starts with the sun.
The sun emits "white" light, but actually, it isn't white at all. This light contains each of the colors of the rainbow. The interesting thing is, each color has a different path length, meaning the streams of light vary in the distance they can travel.
The sun's light moves through space and toward the Earth and then at 18 miles above the surface of the Earth, the light starts to impact Earth's air particles. The particles are the exact right size and exact right distance from the sun to "catch" the blue light. All the other colors continue to travel to Earth's surface.
Each air particle in the sky reflects and scatters the blue light rays and that is why the whole sky turns a beautiful blue shade.
Got a weather question you want answered? Email ganello@waaytv.com!
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