Earth Sciences

Why rain can make the sunrise and sunset burn more brightly

The colours in sunrises and sunsets are caused by the light from the Sun being scattered through the atmosphere.

Meteorologist Rachel McInerney from the weather bureau (BoM) explains that as sunlight comes through at a lower angle through the atmosphere, the blue colour in the light spectrum gets weaker and weaker.

"Light is made up of different wavelengths ... and as the light of the Sun passes through our atmosphere we get what's called scattering of those light particles," she said.