What is the phenomenon responsible for the blue color of the clear daytime sky and the red appearance of the sun during sunrise and sunset?

💡 Solution & Explanation

Rayleigh scattering dictates that the intensity of scattered light is inversely proportional to the fourth power of its wavelength, causing shorter blue wavelengths to scatter much more efficiently than longer red wavelengths across the atmosphere. During sunrise and sunset, sunlight travels through a much thicker layer of air, scattering away most blue components and leaving the direct beam predominantly red. C. V. Raman received the Nobel Prize for discovering the inelastic scattering of light by molecules.