Cagayan de Oro's Magnificent Bright Yellow-Colored Cloud Formation

After a busy work in the office yesterday (March 25, 2013), I was surprised upon seeing the sky having a beautiful hue of a magnificent bright yellow mixed with red and orange sunset over R.N. Pelaez Boulevard, Kauswagan, Cagayan de Oro City.

Being amused with the scenario, I captured the view of the sky leaving the Sun's radiance as the night started to fall over the City. (Check the attached photos)

So basically, we might be asking on why does the sun go yellow, red or orange during sunset?

I searched the internet and got these helpful information:

From: wikipedia.org

"Sunset or sundown is the daily disappearance of the Sun below the western half of the horizon, i.e. at an azimuth greater than 180 degrees, as a result of Earth's rotation.

The time of sunset is defined in astronomy as the moment when the trailing edge of the Sun's disk disappears below the horizon. The ray path of light from the setting Sun is highly distorted near the horizon because of atmospheric refraction, making the sunset appear to occur when the Sun’s disk is already about one diameter below the horizon. Sunset is distinct from dusk, which is the time at which the sky becomes completely dark, which occurs when the Sun is approximately eighteen degrees below the horizon. The period between sunset and dusk is called twilight.

Locations north of the Arctic Circle and south of the Antarctic Circle experience no sunset or sunrise at least one day of the year, when the polar day or the polar night persist continuously for 24 hours.

Sunset creates unique atmospheric conditions such as the often intense orange and red colors of the Sun and the surrounding sky."

From: universetoday.com

"Why is the sunset red? Awesome question. The most basic answer is that light is refracted by particles in the atmosphere and the red end of the spectrum is what is visible. To better understand that you have to have a basic understanding of how light behaves in the air, the atmosphere’s composition, the color of light, wavelengths, and Rayleigh scattering and here is all of the information that you need to understand those things.

The Earth’s atmosphere is one of the main factors in determining what color a sunset is. The atmosphere is made up mostly of gases with a few other molecules thrown in. Since it completely surrounds the Earth it affects what you see in every direction. The most common gasses in our atmosphere are nitrogen(78%) and oxygen(21%). The remaining single percent is made up of trace gasses, like argon, and water vapor and many small solid particles, like dust, soot and ashes, pollen, and salt from the oceans. There may be more water in the air after a rainstorm, or near the ocean. Volcanoes can put large amounts of dust particles high into the atmosphere. Pollution can add different gases or dust and soot."

From: weatherquestions.com

"Sunsets often have a red or orange color to them. Why is this? Sunlight (what we call "white light") is made up of all different colors of light, each having a different wavelength. During a sunset, more red light is scattered toward you because of aerosols in the lower atmosphere, compared to the amount of blue or green light that is scattered.
(Light scattering by different amounts for different wavelengths also explains the color of almost anything: green grass scatters more green light than all other colors of light.)

So why isn't the sky red when the sun is overhead? Because at sunset (or sunrise) sunlight is passing through a much longer path of the lower atmosphere, which is where most of the aerosols are concentrated. So, the scattering effect of the aerosols is magnified, causing more red light to be scattered than other colors of light."