Atmospheric Optics
Gabriel Lombardi
presented at
CPS-AAPT Meeting
Spring 2003
A selection of phenomena
• rainbows
• halos
• sunsets
• sun pillars
• the green flash
• noctilucent & iridescent clouds
• contrails / rocket trails
Causes
• refraction (rainbows, halos, green flash)
• diffraction (iridescent clouds)
• Rayleigh scattering (sunsets)
• Mie scattering (noctilucent clouds)
• reflection (sun pillars)
What color is the Sun?
yellow... orange?
Chromaticity
• 5000-6000K
blackbody is white
• CIE chromaticity diagram
http://casa.colorado.edu/~ajsh/colour/Tspectrum.html
The color of stars
http://www.physics.sfasu.edu/astro/color.html
http://casa.colorado.edu/~ajsh/colour/Tspectrum.html
A real picture
The Sun is white!
Sunset colors
0.16 : 0.90 : 1.0 0.16 : 0.62 : 1.0 0.16 : 0.37: 1.0 0 : 0.28: 1.0
B:G:R
Rayleigh scattering
k
"4
I~!
E
• polarized
• spectrally weighted to the blue
• scattering from density fluctuations
0.2 0.4 1.0
R:G:B
0.0 0.0 1.0
R:G:B
Rainbows
• secondary bow (colors reversed)
• brighter inside the primary
• polarization
Rainbow theory
secondary
from Sun
primary
Isaac Newton, Opticks
Rainbow geometry
45
40
35
distance
30
25
20
angle
15
10
0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1
distance from axis
220 Halos
Fred Kinley, personal communication http://hyperphysics.phy-astr.gsu.edu/hbase/atmos/halo.html
Hexagonal ice crystals
600
n=1.31
Deviation by a prism
45
40
35
30
25
20
0 20 40 60 80 100
incident angle
220
apex: 600
index: 1.31
Sun pillars
• reflection from planar ice crystals
Iridescent clouds
• uniform drop size (Mie scattering)
• thin cloud (single scattering)
http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap030311.html
Rocket trails
• altitude/reddening
• shear
http://www.freqofnature.com/photos/mmiii/
Noctilucent geometry
D = 2Rh h
D 2h
!= =2
R R
Pinatubo sunset
• still glowing one hour after sunset
• h~20 km
http://www.liathach.supanet.com/volcansun.html
Green flash
http://www.intersoft.it/galaxlux/GreenFlashGallery.htm http://www.isc.tamu.edu/~astro/research/sandiego.html
Green flash geometry
http://hyperphysics.phy-astr.gsu.edu/hbase/atmos/redsun.html
Chinese lantern
Ed Ruf, personal communication