Atmospheric Interaction

[Kai Heckel]

Hi Hoontaek,
if the wavelength exceeds the size of the particle, the interaction is weaker or not present at all. The molecule or particle is only sensed properly if the relation between ‘target’ size and wavelength is appropriate.

[Sathyanarayan Rao]

Great explanation. Its similar to how easy we can travel through a lawn of grass as compared to a forest.

[Hoontaek Lee]

Hi, I have a question.

In the box “why is the sky blue?”, it says that “While longer wavelengths simply pass through the particles, shorter wavelengths exhibit a greater probability of being scattered.” My question about this sentence. Why do longer wavelengths just pass through, while shorter ones cannot and interact with particles in the air?

[Rouhollah Davarpanah]

Hi,
I think it is explained in the next paragraph
”You can see that the amount of Rayleigh scattering varies inversely with the fourth power of the wavelength”.
It means that the higher lengths of a wave can cause less scattering.
But their inverse relation is still not obvious completely to me.