When there are lots of aerosols, the sky might even look white in the middle of the day, even if there are no clouds. When there are more aerosols in the air, the sky is a more pale blue color. When there are few aerosols in the air, the sky appears clear and deep blue during the day.

Others are formed when people burn fossil fuels or wood. Some aerosols form naturally from sea salt and volcanic eruptions. Aerosols are tiny particles and liquid droplets in the air. That's because of aerosols in the atmosphere. Sometimes you'll notice that it's a lighter blue, and other times it's a darker blue. (If our eyes were better able to see violet light, then the sky would look violet in color.)īut the sky isn't the same color blue every day. The sky looks blue because we see the scattered blue light. Shorter waves of light, like violet and blue, are the most likely to be scattered by air molecules. Light from the Sun is scattered in all directions by molecules of air as well as particles like aerosols and dust. When light is moving through the atmosphere, some of the waves are scattered, which gives the sky its color. Colors like blue, indigo, and violet travel in shorter waves and have more energy. Colors like red, orange, and yellow travel in longer waves and have less energy.

The light travels in waves that are too small and fast for us to see. Sunlight, or visible light, is made of all the rainbow colors: red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, and violet.

Dusk color