Traditional Culture Encyclopedia - Weather inquiry - Why is the sky blue? Why is the sea blue?

Why is the sky blue? Why is the sea blue?

The sky is blue: that's because the air in the sky has no color, but why is the clear sky blue? That's because there are many tiny dust, water droplets, ice crystals and other substances in the air when the weather is fine. When sunlight passes through the air, long-wavelength red light, orange light and yellow light can penetrate the atmosphere and directly illuminate the ground, while short-wavelength blue light, purple light and indigo light are easy to suspend.

Particles in the air block light, thus scattering light in all directions, making the sky appear blue. In fact, the scattered blue light is only a small part, and most of the blue light and purple light that have not encountered particles still hit the earth directly, so the white light that hits the earth is still red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo and purple.

Have you noticed that the sky will become bluer after the heavy rain? The clearer the weather, the bluer the sky. This is because there are a lot of dust particles, water droplets and ice crystals in the air in such weather.

The sea is blue: that's because the color of the sea water is determined by the color of the reflected light from the sea surface and the backscattered light inside the sea water. Because blue light and green light have the strongest penetrating power in water, there is the greatest chance of backscattering. Therefore, the sea looks blue or green. Sunlight is projected onto the sea surface, part of it is reflected, and the rest enters the water. When the sun shines vertically on the sea, the reflected light is very small, only about 2% on the calm sea. As the sun approaches the horizon, the reflected sunlight gradually increases. In fact, the amount of sunlight entering the sea varies with many factors, such as the projection angle of the sun, weather conditions, sea surface conditions and the clarity of the sea water. Sunlight is composed of light with different wavelengths, and seawater is selective in absorbing and scattering light with different wavelengths. Sea water absorbs the most red light and transmits the most blue light. Most of the red light can only penetrate the water layer of 2 to 3 meters. Blue light penetrates the deepest, exceeding 500 meters. In addition, suspended particles in seawater absorb more blue light and green light with shorter wavelength, while the scattering of other light has nothing to do with the wavelength of light. The color of seawater is mainly determined by the scattering of light by water molecules and suspended particles, so the color of seawater with different turbidity is different. There are many suspended particles in coastal waters, and the particles are also large. Therefore, from the far sea to the offshore, the color of seawater gradually becomes lighter from dark blue. Near the estuary with high sediment concentration, there are a lot of yellowish substances produced by land plants decomposition in seawater, so the seawater looks pale green.

So the blue sky and blue sea were formed.