Which color reflect UV light best?

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Discussion Overview

The discussion centers on which color reflects ultraviolet (UV) light best, exploring the relationship between visible colors and UV reflection. Participants examine theories, assumptions, and the complexities involved in the reflection of UV light by different materials.

Discussion Character

  • Debate/contested
  • Technical explanation
  • Conceptual clarification

Main Points Raised

  • One participant suggests that high altitude geese might have a blue color to protect against UV rays, while another argues that snowy white is the best reflector of radiation.
  • Some participants express skepticism about the correlation between visible color and UV reflection, noting that a material can reflect different wavelengths of light, including UV.
  • It is proposed that white surfaces, which reflect all visible colors, may also reflect some UV light, but this is complicated by the atomic structure of the surface and the materials involved.
  • Another participant questions the assumption that visible color correlates with UV reflection, citing the complexity of the electromagnetic spectrum and material absorption characteristics.
  • One participant mentions that UV albedo varies across different objects and suggests that there is no strong relationship between UV albedo and visible albedo.

Areas of Agreement / Disagreement

Participants express differing views on the relationship between visible color and UV reflection, with no consensus reached on which color reflects UV light best. The discussion remains unresolved with multiple competing perspectives.

Contextual Notes

The discussion highlights the complexity of reflection processes and the dependence on material properties, suggesting that assumptions about color and UV reflection may not be straightforward.

Stanley514
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Which color is the best reflector of UV light?

In scientific-popular movie ``The future is wild`` they believe that high altitude
gooses should have beauty blue color http://www.thefutureiswild.com/futurassic.asp?level1id=4&level2id=11&level3id=46&level4id=70" to protect themself from harmful UV rays.I thought before that best color that reflects any radiation is snowy white.Also if we are trying to find some color which is as closer as possible to UV it would be violet or purple,not blue.In Windows 7 ``paint`` program the farthest color to the righ is purple which looks rather like ``red``. Any coments?
 
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I don't believe the visible color has any effect on how it reflects UV light. The range of UV in the electromagnetic spectrum covers about 400 nanometers in difference, similar to the range of coverage of visible light. In effect, you could figure out which specific wavelength of UV light is reflected by objects and assign "colors" to different parts of the UV spectrum.

A material could reflect red light and also reflect parts of the UV spectrum as well. Also remember that some materials can reflect more than just 1 single color in the visible range.
 
I don't believe the visible color has any effect on how it reflects UV light.
Isn`t color which we see as ``white`` usually tends to reflect UV rays too?
 
Stanley514 said:
Isn`t color which we see as ``white`` usually tends to reflect UV rays too?
Since a white surface reflects all visible colours of light approximately equally, one could reasonable expect that it does not suddenly stop reflecting for wavelengths shorter than violet. So white surfaces will likely reflect some of the longer wavelength UV.

But reflection is a complicated process that depends on the atomic structure of the surface and the kinds of atoms involved. Since most glass absorbs shorter wavelength UV a white surface covered by a sheet of glass will reflect light and long wavelength UV but not higher frequency UV.

AM
 
Stanley514 said:
Isn`t color which we see as ``white`` usually tends to reflect UV rays too?

I don't know honestly. Looking at the EM spectrum and what absorbs what, I can't see any reason to say that the visible color of something would also correlate with non visible wavelength light.
 
UV reflection is a function of UV albedo. This albedo varies over the spectral range for various objects. I have no idea of what it might be for geese. However, we have no reason to believe that the UV albedo is any more closely related to the visible albedo than the visible albedo is to the infrared; i. e., not closely related at all.

I know from personal experience that the military have done considerable work in UV remote sensing, but little of this seems to have been published.
 

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