Ross Evans 3. This is also about 'scattering' and the passage of the sun's rays through the atmosphere - the sun's rays have further to travel in the early and late parts of the day and the colours are generated by the 'scattering' of certain colours in the spectrum of light, leaving others enhanced. There is also a red sunset, sometimes caused by a large amount of volcanic ash or dust in the air. Sel Kerans 4. It is very likely that the dust in the air is the explanation for the red sky.
Dust is a great condensation nucleus.
Dust causes most of the sunlight to scatter, but allows the red light to travel longer distances to our eyes. Also, late in the day when the sun is going down, sunlight has to travel longer distances through more atmosphere, and most of the light is scattered, except the reds. See Copyright and Disclaimer Information Text and images may be used for education purposes, provided source is acknowledged. Individual contributors to these pages should also be acknowledged, where applicable. Permission should be sought for electronic copying beyond incidental browser caching.