Why sun has different color and strenght at sunset and sunrise while its the same angle its shining at us?

Question

Why sun has different color and strenght at sunset and sunrise while its the same angle its shining at us?

Answer 1

The same angle?  You wanna think about that for a second?    Shine a torch at an apple.  The torch is the sun, the apple is the Earth. Now turn the around and around.  When the light starts to shine on that new part of the apple, that is like dawn breaking at one place on Earth.  We continue to rotate on our axis, until we start to 'go behind' the rest of the planet, like a sunset.  The suns' angle changes in the sky every minute.  This is how sundials work.  How on Earth could you say it was the 'same angle'?

Answer 2

At sunset and sunrise, the sun's light has to travel through more of the atmosphere than during the day. The intense red and orange hues of the sky at sunrise and sunset are mainly caused by scattering of sunlight off of dust particles, soot particles, other solid aerosols, and liquid aerosols in the earth's atmosphere. When there are no particulates in the troposphere, such as after a big rain storm, then the remaining less intense reds are explained by Rayleigh Scattering of sunlight off of air molecules.

Answer 3

The question is why is the sun a different colour at sunset from the colour it is at sunrise, even though the angle it is shining at is the same.

I'd say the answer is that the sunrise happens when the air is cold and dense. Sunset happens at the end of the day when the air has been heated for the whole day by the sun, so it is warm and less dense. The different air has a different refractive index, so it affects the colours from the sun differently.

Answer 4

The sun's color very near the horizon depends upon the content of the atmosphere in the lengthy line of sight to our eye.  That likely differs from sunrise to sunset because of direction (east vs west) which may change the elevation of the horizon, dust content looking east vs west (due to populations or terrain, etc.), and different cloud structures and elevations in the morning vs evening.  Also, the sun must be compared only at identical angles even though it is rising or setting.  

Answer 5

Because the rays are at an angle and diffused by the ozone and other atmospheric layers.