Flying from Gatwick to Tenerife we flew directly over the Channel Islands.
And of course looking down on a clear day everything really does look blue from that height – for exactly the same reason the sky looks blue when you’re looking up. Air, although almost completely transparent, is actually blue.
Call it scattered light, call it what you will; but that’s being blue in exactly the same way anything else blue is blue.
This does of course skirt around the question of why the Sun is red when viewed through air along a sufficiently long path. See Blue Sky, Red Sun for an explanation.
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©Clive K Semmens 2009