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