The sky looks orange outside primarily due to the way sunlight interacts with particles in the atmosphere. When the sun is low on the horizon, such as during sunrise or sunset, its light travels through a greater thickness of the atmosphere. This journey causes shorter wavelengths of light (like blue and violet) to scatter out, while longer wavelengths (like red, orange, and yellow) pass through to our eyes, giving the sky an orange hue. Other factors can also cause the sky to look orange:
- Presence of smoke or pollution particles, especially from wildfires, which block shorter wavelengths and let longer orange and red wavelengths reach observers.
- Dust or heavy clouds scattering the blue light and allowing more orange light to be visible.
- Weather changes such as approaching storms can sometimes create an orange sky due to increased cloud cover and particle scattering.
Thus, the orange color outside is due to a combination of sunlight's angle and the presence of particles like smoke, dust, or clouds that filter the spectrum of light reaching the eyes.