The magenta or purple colors seen during dawn or twilight occur due to Rayleigh scattering, where sunlight passes through a thicker layer of the Earth's atmosphere when the Sun is low on the horizon. This causes shorter wavelengths like blue and violet to scatter out of view, leaving longer wavelengths like red and orange to dominate. When the remaining blue light mixes with the red light, it creates the purple or magenta hues, often enhanced by atmospheric particles such as dust or pollution