Thread: Tell me about that pink glow in the sky

As the Sun gets closer to the horizon, the light rays have to pass through a thicker portion of the atmosphere. The shorter wavelength rays are filtered out and we're left with a reddish hue around sunset/rise time.

Now I don't really know where you live, but appart from Spartiate's explenation, what you're seing could be aurora borealis.
If this is what you see, I doubt you would be mistaken about it though.

We sometimes get this in Denmark as well, though I've never been lucky enough to see it.

Originally Posted by Marvo

Now I don't really know where you live, but appart from Spartiate's explenation, what you're seing could be aurora borealis.
If this is what you see, I doubt you would be mistaken about it though.

We sometimes get this in Denmark as well, though I've never been lucky enough to see it.

I doubt he sees that while it's snowing, that implies clouds ...

That's true.

I don't think thats what he means. Because I know what hes talking about, specifically when its snowing, the night sky is very pinkish rather than black. Now I think its just the clouds more than anything, but I don't know why they make that pink hue.

That's it really, the effect lasts long after the sun sets, but notice you'll never see it in the middle of the night.

The clouds are even more pinkish because they are even denser spots of air where more short-wavelength rays are filtered.


There also exists these, which are all extremely rare...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polar_stratospheric_cloud

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iridescent_Cloud

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Noctilucent_cloud

Now i don't want to know whatever you thinks causes it (and i'm pretty sure that it's just light reflecting of the ice in the clouds) i want to know what it's called.

As the Sun gets closer to the horizon, the light rays have to pass through a thicker portion of the atmosphere. The shorter wavelength rays are filtered out and we're left with a reddish hue around sunset/rise time.

That's nice, but i have only seen this with snow storms, never rain storms that occur at night

That's it really, the effect lasts long after the sun sets

how long? i've seen it at 11 at night and the sun sets at around 5

Depends on where you live. The sun can be gone, but still light the sky, if you live in countries like Alaska, Norway, Greenland and Iceland.

i live in colorado

Originally Posted by Pyrofan1

how long? i've seen it at 11 at night and the sun sets at around 5

That's too long, it lasts for as long as twilight does, maybe 1 or 2 hours past sunset. Maybe it's just the city lights reflecting on the cloud ceilling?

Beyond that, you'll have to show us a picture or two...

Yeah, I know what hes talking about, and I've seen it as late as midnight.

Originally Posted by ExoByte

Yeah, I know what hes talking about, and I've seen it as late as midnight.

Pics pics pics ?

It's not any of those things in the wiki links I posted?

Nah, I wish, cause those look cool, and Google isn't turning up any results.

Maybe it's just the city lights reflecting on the cloud ceilling?

that's what i said in my original post and I don't want to know what causes it. I want to know what it's called

It's funny that you should post this, because I just witnessed the same thing for the first time like two nights ago, it was also at midnight. It was tripping me out because I couldn't figure out what the hell was going on, the entire sky was like pink and it was still like bright out, which never ever happens, it's normally just entirely pitch black after like seven here, but the clouds all had a pink hue to them.

Originally Posted by Pyrofan1

that's what i said in my original post and I don't want to know what causes it. I want to know what it's called

Oh so you know that that's it? I don't think there's a name for that...

Light pollution ?

Yes, I was just about to mention light pollution as well. I hardly have any knowledge of that stuff though, so perhaps Wikipedia can help you?

The wavelengths of light are scattered according to the wavelength to the power of 4, under 2 effects:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rayleigh_scattering
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mie_scattering

This is why you see the sky as blue during the day. It should technically be violet as violet is scattered more, but we can't see it as well as other colours so we see it as blue instead. This also gives sunlight it's yellowish tint.

As the sun rises/sets, we see it as red-orange, because as it's so low to the horizon the light has to travel through a lot more atmosphere, so the blues and purples are scattered so much that they never reach us.

As an analogy, picture a car driving along a straight road with lots of places to turn off at. Violet is very likely to turn off at some point, whereas red is unlikely, so it carries straight on.

We see a red afterglow once the sun has set because red light again, scatters a bit, but not that much. It also reflects off water vapour and particles in the atmosphere and/or clouds.

Ice absorbs the red parts of the spectrum more, and absorbs bluer parts the least, so with your pink sky, it's a combination of the light available at that time of the day (mostly red as the sun has set), and the reflectivity of the snow/ice particles in the air, and that snow/ice will absorb more red light, leading to the light in other parts of the spectrum being more intense (relatively).

Snow and ice is also a lot more reflective than water vapour or most other particles in the atmosphere, which is why you can see the effect for longer than if there were no snow; more light is being reflected, so the image is brighter for longer.

It's called the sunset. (Sorry, it could be something else.)

It's the glow of a city. populated areas like cities, or decent sized towns, throw up a pink glow at night.
Seen it many a time driving back into my city.
you don't see it over your head, only off in the distance.


easy...