A sunbeam, in meteorological optics, is a beam of sunlight that appears to radiate from the position of the Sun. Shining through openings in clouds or between other objects such as mountains and buildings, these beams of particle-scattered sunlight are essentially parallel shafts separated by darker shadowed volumes. Their apparent convergence in the sky is a visual illusion from linear perspective. The same illusion causes the apparent convergence of parallel lines on a long straight road or hallway at a distant vanishing point.[1] The scattering particles that make sunlight visible may be air molecules or particulates.[2]
- ^ Schaefer, Vincent J.; Day, John A.; Pasachoff, Jay (1998). A Field Guide to the Atmosphere. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. p. 169. ISBN 9781417657094.
- ^ Lynch, D. K.; Livingston, W. (1995). Color and Light in Nature. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 9780521468367.