Another crespucular sunset - Darwin, NT, Australia
Crepuscular rays /krɪˈpʌskjʊlər/ (more commonly known as sunbeams, sun rays, splintered light, or god rays), in meteorological optics, are rays of sunlight that appear to radiate from the point in the sky where the Sun is located. Shining through openings in clouds (particularly stratocumulus[citation needed]) or between other objects such as mountains, these columns of sunlit scattering particles are separated by darker shadowed volumes.
Despite seeming to converge toward the light source, the rays are essentially parallel shafts of sunlit and shadowed particles. Their apparent convergence is a visual illusion from linear perspective. This illusion is the same as railway lines' or long hallways' appearing to converge at a distant vanishing point.
The scattering particles that make crepuscular rays visible can be air molecules or particulate
The name comes from their frequent occurrences during twilight hours (those around dawn and dusk), when the contrasts between light and dark are the most obvious. Crepuscular comes from the Latin word "crepusculum", meaning twilight.
The rays in some cases may extend across the sky and appear to converge at the antisolar point, the point on the sky sphere directly opposite the sun. In this case they are called anticrepuscular or antisolar rays. These are not as easily spotted as crepuscular rays. This apparent dual convergence (to both the solar and antisolar points) is a perspective effect analogous to railway tracks appearing to converge to opposite points in opposite directions.
Crepuscular rays usually appear orange because the path through the atmosphere at sunrise and sunset passes through up to 40 times as much air as rays from a high midday sun. Particles in the air scatter short wavelength light (blue and green) through Rayleigh scattering much more strongly than longer wavelength yellow and red light.
Another crespucular sunset - Darwin, NT, Australia
Crepuscular rays /krɪˈpʌskjʊlər/ (more commonly known as sunbeams, sun rays, splintered light, or god rays), in meteorological optics, are rays of sunlight that appear to radiate from the point in the sky where the Sun is located. Shining through openings in clouds (particularly stratocumulus[citation needed]) or between other objects such as mountains, these columns of sunlit scattering particles are separated by darker shadowed volumes.
Despite seeming to converge toward the light source, the rays are essentially parallel shafts of sunlit and shadowed particles. Their apparent convergence is a visual illusion from linear perspective. This illusion is the same as railway lines' or long hallways' appearing to converge at a distant vanishing point.
The scattering particles that make crepuscular rays visible can be air molecules or particulate
The name comes from their frequent occurrences during twilight hours (those around dawn and dusk), when the contrasts between light and dark are the most obvious. Crepuscular comes from the Latin word "crepusculum", meaning twilight.
The rays in some cases may extend across the sky and appear to converge at the antisolar point, the point on the sky sphere directly opposite the sun. In this case they are called anticrepuscular or antisolar rays. These are not as easily spotted as crepuscular rays. This apparent dual convergence (to both the solar and antisolar points) is a perspective effect analogous to railway tracks appearing to converge to opposite points in opposite directions.
Crepuscular rays usually appear orange because the path through the atmosphere at sunrise and sunset passes through up to 40 times as much air as rays from a high midday sun. Particles in the air scatter short wavelength light (blue and green) through Rayleigh scattering much more strongly than longer wavelength yellow and red light.