 If you have spent much time in Wyoming, you know that it is home to some magnificent sunrises and sunsets with reds, oranges, and gold spanning the sky. This, of course, is not unique to Wyoming, but is breathtaking nonetheless. What causes this change in hue on the day's edge? It all comes down to the sun's rays being scattered by particles in the atmosphere. Sunlight comes as a beam and contains all of the colors. Each of these colors has a different wavelength. The short wavelength color, blue, is scattered by molecules in the air much more than the other colors of the spectrum. This is why blue reaches our eyes from all directions on a clear day. In the morning and evening, the sun is at its flattest angle to our position on Earth. The light must travel through the most atmosphere at this point, so the blue wavelength is scattered so much it doesn't reach your eye, which leaves the oranges and reds. The light can be scattered in two ways. By small particles such as air molecules, which is called Raleigh scattering, or large particles like cloud droplets, which is called My Scattering. Raleigh scattering will cause a sunrise or sunset that has a dull red or orange color at the skyline when the rest of the sky is blue. My Scattering occurs when there are clouds causing the vibrant colors to carry across the sky. From the University of Wyoming Extension, this is Mae Smith enjoying another beautiful Wyoming sunset and exploring the nature of Wyoming.