5 ms·

"White is unambiguously the correct answer." Hmm, isn't sun wavelength actually closer to very very bright green?

by ss248 6y ago

greesil 6y ago
My understanding is that the spectrum follows the black body radiation curve with a temperature of approximately 6000K. Peak color is green. White is closer to the truth IMO because it is a combination of multiple colors, but still misses the mark because how does "white" contain UV, radio waves, infrared of very different magnitudes?
zbrozek 6y ago
The sun is not a monochromatic source. It's an incoherent, broadband source. The power spectrum distribution of those wavelengths pretty-closely follows the black body radiation curve. If you had a monochromatic source at that peak it would look green.
scarmig 6y ago
The sun doesn't emit a single electromagnetic wavelength; the light it emits instead broadly falls on a, uh, spectrum, including wavelengths that are either too large or too small to be perceived by our eyes. It makes the most sense to call that white. Although, the wavelength of peak intensity is a green.
petermcneeley 6y ago
I would guess the most scientific answer would be a convolution of these plots. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_irradiance#/media/File:Solar_spectrum_en.svg https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_irradiance#/media/File:S... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Color_vision#/media/File:Cone-fundamentals-with-srgb-spectrum.svg https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Color_vision#/media/File:Cone-...
pzone 6y ago
The spectral peak is blue-green but the emission is relatively even along the visible light range, so if any color is perceptible it's only a very slight tint. The atmosphere scatters blue light more than other colors so direct sunlight viewed from Earth at noon is even more balanced and pure white. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Solar_spectrum_en.svg#/media/File:Solar_spectrum_en.svg https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Solar_spectrum_en.sv...
jerf 6y ago
The color of something is not defined by its peak radiative frequency. I can easily create a spectrum that has a peak in blue but looks red, by having a lot more red overall but not at one frequency.
Isinlor 6y ago
Looking from ISS it's pretty much white. It's gets yellow to orange when filtered rough the atmosphere. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P8bBQun8p7U https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P8bBQun8p7U

"White is unambiguously the correct answer." Hmm, isn't sun wavelength actually closer to very very bright green?

by ss248 6y ago

"White is unambiguously the correct answer." Hmm, isn't sun wavelength actually closer to very very bright green?

My understanding is that the spectrum follows the black body radiation curve with a temperature of approximately 6000K. Peak color is green. White is closer to the truth IMO because it is a combination of multiple colors, but still misses the mark because how does "white" contain UV, radio waves, infrared of very different magnitudes?

zbrozek 6y ago

The sun is not a monochromatic source. It's an incoherent, broadband source. The power spectrum distribution of those wavelengths pretty-closely follows the black body radiation curve. If you had a monochromatic source at that peak it would look green.

scarmig 6y ago

The sun doesn't emit a single electromagnetic wavelength; the light it emits instead broadly falls on a, uh, spectrum, including wavelengths that are either too large or too small to be perceived by our eyes. It makes the most sense to call that white. Although, the wavelength of peak intensity is a green.

petermcneeley 6y ago

I would guess the most scientific answer would be a convolution of these plots. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_irradiance#/media/File:Solar_spectrum_en.svg https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_irradiance#/media/File:S... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Color_vision#/media/File:Cone-fundamentals-with-srgb-spectrum.svg https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Color_vision#/media/File:Cone-...

pzone 6y ago

The spectral peak is blue-green but the emission is relatively even along the visible light range, so if any color is perceptible it's only a very slight tint. The atmosphere scatters blue light more than other colors so direct sunlight viewed from Earth at noon is even more balanced and pure white. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Solar_spectrum_en.svg#/media/File:Solar_spectrum_en.svg https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Solar_spectrum_en.sv...

jerf 6y ago

The color of something is not defined by its peak radiative frequency. I can easily create a spectrum that has a peak in blue but looks red, by having a lot more red overall but not at one frequency.

Isinlor 6y ago

Looking from ISS it's pretty much white. It's gets yellow to orange when filtered rough the atmosphere. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P8bBQun8p7U https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P8bBQun8p7U