Coming back from early morning grocery shopping, the planet Venus shining brightly in the southeast. Retracing my steps when returning from the ash pile, noticed the blue color of the snow at the bottom of the tracks I had made. I remember seeing this before.
Why is that? Science IQ.com says, "Generally, snow and ice present us with a uniformly white face. This is because most all of the visible light striking the snow or ice surface is reflected back without any particular preference for a single color within the visible spectrum. As this light travels into the snow or ice, the ice grains scatter a large amount of light. If the light is to travel over any distance, it must survive many such scattering events, that is it must keep scattering and not be absorbed.
The observer sees the light coming back from the rear surface layers after it has been scattered or bounced off other snow grains only a few times and it still appears white. However, the absorption is preferential. More red light is absorbed compared to blue... Typical examples are poking a hole in the snow and looking down into the hole to see blue light or the blue color...
In simplest terms, think of the ice or snow layer as a filter. If it is only a centimeter thick, all the light makes it through, but if it is a meter thick, mostly blue light makes it through."
Oh.
Never lose a holy curiosity
Albert Einstein
Page a day calendar on gratitude
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