It was like you could almost reach out and taste a few wisps of pink and purple crystalized strands of sugar spread across the skies of Metro Vancouver after a particularly beautiful sunset last night.
The “cotton candy” skies, as many called it sharing photos of the colourful clouds on social media, is thanks to a phenomenon called scattering. Molecules and small particles in the atmosphere change the direction of light rays, causing them to scatter -- affecting the colour of said light rays. When there aren't a lot of particles to scatter the sun's rays -- like in the mid-afternoon -- short-wavelength colours like blue and violet are scattered creating the blue and violet light we see during the day.
When the sun is low, however, sunlight passes through more air meaning more molecules are present 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 sight and other colours continue on to our eyes like the pinks and purples.
Now, enough science -- let’s get to the results!
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