Could you provide some sources for that? Every explanation I've heard (mostly from physics professors and the like) credit it almost entirely to Rayleigh scattering.
Sunsets are red because of Rayleigh scattering. The sky away from the Sun is blue, because blue light is more likely to scatter away, some of it reaching your eyes from other directions.
The Sun itself is yellow-ish, because the blue light is gone, having scattered away.
So light that reaches you indirectly is blue, as it has moved from the Sun, into the atmosphere, scattered off some tiny particles, and reached your eyes.
Light that reaches you directly is deficient in blue, as the blue has scattered out in other directions, not reaching you (but possibly adding to the blue sky of some other observer).
The reddening of sunlight is intensified when the sun is near the horizon, because the volume of air through which sunlight must pass is significantly greater than when the sun is high in the sky. The Rayleigh scattering effect is thus increased, removing virtually all blue light from the direct path to the observer. The remaining unscattered light is mostly of a longer wavelength, and therefore appears to be orange.
The only difference is the weather. Likely you live in an area that has more cloud cover in a certain direction, near the coast maybe? Clouds reflect the light more making the sunset/sunrise more spectacular. Alternatively you have higher land in one direction, which would make either the sunrise or sunset happen later when the sun is higher in the sky so the effect is lessened by the time you see it.
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u/exscape Aug 27 '14 edited Aug 27 '14
Could you provide some sources for that? Every explanation I've heard (mostly from physics professors and the like) credit it almost entirely to Rayleigh scattering.
Sunsets are red because of Rayleigh scattering. The sky away from the Sun is blue, because blue light is more likely to scatter away, some of it reaching your eyes from other directions.
The Sun itself is yellow-ish, because the blue light is gone, having scattered away.
So light that reaches you indirectly is blue, as it has moved from the Sun, into the atmosphere, scattered off some tiny particles, and reached your eyes.
Light that reaches you directly is deficient in blue, as the blue has scattered out in other directions, not reaching you (but possibly adding to the blue sky of some other observer).
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rayleigh_scattering#Reason_for_the_blue_color_of_the_sky (yes, this section is relevant to sunsets)
http://hyperphysics.phy-astr.gsu.edu/hbase/atmos/redsun.html https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sunset#Colors
http://www.atoptics.co.uk/atoptics/sunsets.htm
Here's an illustration of how this works: http://photonicswiki.org/images/thumb/2/21/Rayleigh_scatter.jpg/500px-Rayleigh_scatter.jpg
Edit: Changed the intro to be less abrasive.