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Atmospheric Optics

Gabriel Lombardi presented on various atmospheric optics phenomena including rainbows, halos, sunsets, sun pillars, the green flash, noctilucent and iridescent clouds, and contrails. The presentation covered the optical causes of each phenomenon such as refraction, diffraction, Rayleigh scattering, and Mie scattering. It also discussed topics like the color of the sun and stars, sunset colors, rainbow theory, halo geometry, ice crystal structures, sun pillar reflection, noctilucent cloud altitude, and green flash geometry.

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140 views25 pages

Atmospheric Optics

Gabriel Lombardi presented on various atmospheric optics phenomena including rainbows, halos, sunsets, sun pillars, the green flash, noctilucent and iridescent clouds, and contrails. The presentation covered the optical causes of each phenomenon such as refraction, diffraction, Rayleigh scattering, and Mie scattering. It also discussed topics like the color of the sun and stars, sunset colors, rainbow theory, halo geometry, ice crystal structures, sun pillar reflection, noctilucent cloud altitude, and green flash geometry.

Uploaded by

drphysics
Copyright
© Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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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

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