Why today 's moon look red too!!!?

Question

i live in san jose CA. today its my first time to see a moon is red . did anyone know why..

Answer 1

The reason for the orange color is due to the scattering of light by the atmosphere. When the moon is near the horizon, the moonlight has to pass through much more atmosphere than when the moon is directly overhead. By the time the moonlight reaches your eyes, most of the shorter waves (green, blue, violet) of visible light have been scattered away by air molecules. You only see the longer wavelength of yellow, orange, or red.

Sometimes the moon appears orange even when it's directly overhead. This occurs when there's a lot of dust, smoke, or pollution in the atmosphere. The size of those particles will determine the type of color you will see. Sometimes the moon will look red, orange, even blue.

It seems like the moon appears in certain colors during certain times of the year. For instance, the Harvest moon during the fall appears very large and orange. There are two reasons for this: the moon's path across the sky, and the climate of earth. During certain times of the year, the moon will rise and set at different angles. Sometimes the moon stays really low in the sky and never reaches an overhead position. The earth's atmosphere also goes through certain changes at certain times of the year. In some months, the atmosphere has more dust particles than usual; in other months, the atmosphere contains a lot more cloud particles than usual. Extra particles in the atmosphere mean more scattering of light.

Pollution in the atmosphere can cause the same distortion of color. If you live in Los Angeles (which has a lot of pollution), for example, the moon will constantly appear in color. If the pollution is really thick, you might not be able to see the moon at all!

Answer 2

I live in Pittsburg, CA and this is the reddist I've ever seen the moon; earlier today I noticed how dusty looking the sky was due to all the fires we've had recently. The color is due to the partciles from the fires and the other pollutants in the air. It's kind off scary to think there are so many particles in the air that it's turned the moon blood red, I've seen orange and blue, but this is my first blood red moon. Even knowing why it's red, it still looks freaky.