Light travels in waves as it goes through the air. These waves have their own wavelength, which determine the frequency and hence the color of the wave. When light, in the form of waves, travels through air, it interacts with the gas particles in the air.
Light of short wavelength has a high frequency due to the inversely proportional relationship between frequency and wavelength. High frequency light is high energy light due to the proportional...
Light travels in waves as it goes through the air. These waves have their own wavelength, which determine the frequency and hence the color of the wave. When light, in the form of waves, travels through air, it interacts with the gas particles in the air.
Light of short wavelength has a high frequency due to the inversely proportional relationship between frequency and wavelength. High frequency light is high energy light due to the proportional relationship between energy and frequency (E=hf where E is energy, f is frequency, and h is Planck's constant).
Meanwhile, gas particles in the air have electrons in many orbitals around their nucleus. These electrons will "jump" to higher orbitals when light of high enough energy is absorbed by the electrons, exciting the electron and causing it to jump into a "higher" orbital. These electrons then lose their excitement and jump back to a lower orbital, releasing energy in the form of light, effectively redirecting the light it originally absorbed in a different direction.
When short wavelength light (i.e. high energy light) passes through the gas in the atmosphere, it has enough energy to excite an electron and be absorbed, and then re-emitted in a different direction. However, when light has a longer wavelength (i.e. red light with low energy), it does not have enough energy to excite an electron and make it jump into a higher orbital. Hence, this long wavelength red light is not absorbed and passes through the gas unaffected.
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