Sunlight shining through clouds, giving rise to crepuscular rays. The spectrum of surface illumination depends upon solar elevation due to atmospheric effects, with the blue spectral component dominating during twilight before and after sunrise and sunset, respectively, and red dominating during sunrise and sunset.

The Sun's emission in the extreme ultraviolet part of the solar emission spectrum. Credit: NASA Goddard Space Flight Center via flickr The Sun emits radiation from X-rays to radio waves, but the irradiance of solar radiation peaks in the visible wavelengths (see figure below).

The spectrum starts with red light, with a wavelength of 700 nanometers (7,000 angstroms), at the top. It spans the range of visible light colors, including orange and yellow and green, and ends at the bottom with blue and violet colors with a wavelength of 400 nm (4,000 angstroms).

Apr 4, 2025 · Sunlight, solar radiation that is visible at Earth’s surface. The amount of sunlight is dependent on the extent of the daytime cloud cover. Some places on Earth receive more than 4,000 hours per year of sunlight, as in the Sahara; others receive less than 2,000, as in regions of frequent storminess.

Sep 23, 2004 · The colors of the rainbow are the "basic spectrum" from which all the light we see is composed. Although these colors merge smoothly, they are sometimes divided into red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo and violet (and other names).

Nov 30, 2017 · A high-resolution version of the spectrum of our Sun, this image was created from a digital atlas observed with the Fourier Transform Spectrometer at the McMath-Pierce Solar Facility at the National Solar Observatory on Kitt Peak, near Tucson, Arizona.

What kind of light does the Sun emit? Sunlight spectrum above Earth's atmosphere as a function of wavelength. Public Domain Image, image source: Christopher S. Baird, data source: American Society for Testing and Materials Terrestrial Reference. The Sun shines in many ‘colors’ of light.

The Sun emits light primarily in the visible spectrum, but it also emits at other wavelengths, as illustrated in the following figure. (Recall that the visible part of the spectrum extends from about 4000 Å up to about 7500 Å in wavelength.)

the sun's radiation has to pass through the earth's atmosphere before reaching the surface which slightly reduces its intensity. The spectrum is plotted in the figure below reduced by the appropriate geometric factor. The blue curve is the theoretical spectrum and the green curve is the actual measured spectrum.

Jan 20, 2025 · Here are the main types of visible light spectrum produced by the sun: Ultraviolet (UV) Light: UV light has a shorter wavelength than visible light, ranging from 100 nanometers to 380 nanometers. UV light is not visible to the human eye, but it is essential for many biological processes, such as vitamin D production in the skin.