Pelicans Flying Over Purple-Pink Sunset

The Science Behind the Purple Skies

Summary: The light was scattered around the aerosols (atmospheric gases, water droplets, and dust particles, air pollutants) suspended in the air due to the phenomenon called Rayleigh scattering. When there are more aerosols, more sunlight is scattered, resulting in magical purple or pink skies.
-------//-------
A phenomenon called Rayleigh scattering, which also explains why certain colors dominate during sunrise and sunset, offers a theory behind the purple skies. Scattering is the process by which tiny particles and molecules act in changing the direction in which light rays travel.

As Steven Ackerman, professor of meteorology at the University of Wisconsin Madison explains, the colors we see also depends on our perception abilities: “Because the sun is low on the horizon, sunlight passes through more air at sunset and sunrise than during the day, when the sun is higher in the sky. More atmosphere means more molecules to scatter the violet and blue light away from your eyes. If the path is long enough, all of the blue and violet light scatters out of your line of sight. The other colors continue on their way to your eyes. This is why sunsets are often yellow, orange, and red.”

"As sunlight shines down to Earth, most of the colors of the spectrum are able to reach the surface uninterrupted," Florida-based First Coast News meteorologist Lauren Rautenkranz shares in a video that offers a theory. "But the shorter wavelengths, blue and violet, are scattered in every direction. This light bounces from particle to particle until it eventually reaches your eyes. But the sky doesn't appear violet and blue because of our eyes' limitations."

"The light was scattered around the moisture in the air, causing the magical purple color," Rautenkranz adds.

Reference: *https://interestingengineering.com/the-reason-behind-the-purple-skies-that-appeared-after-hurricane-michael
*https://eartheclipse.com/geography/what-causes-pink-sunsets.html#:~:text=Besides%20atmospheric%20gases%2C%20water%20droplets,in%20purple%20or%20pink%20sunsets.s