According to Goethe also atmospheric colors are formed in the interaction between light and darkness. A setting Sun (light), when still somewhat high in the sky and seen through a turbid medium, (the dusty atmosphere), has almost white, yellowish color, orange when seen lower and sometimes even dark ruby red color when seen at the horizon. Looking towards the horizon we are looking through a thicker layer of turbid dusty atmosphere than when looking straight up. Similarly, when seeing the blue of the sky, we are looking through the same turbid atmosphere (lit by the Sun from the side) at the darkness of the black space behind. When looking straight up from a high altitude, the turbid lit medium between us and the dark space is thin, therefore making the sky dark blue or dark violet. When looking toward the horizon we are looking at the dark space through a thick layer of turbid medium and therefore the sky there looks light blue or even white. 

These color phenomena Goethe called Ur-Phänomen or primordial phenomena in the atmosphere. There yellow and red colors appear when looking at light through a turbid medium, blue and violet when looking at darkness through the same turbid medium. Light and darkness mix with another. ”Colors are the sufferings of light and darkness.”

This is an explanation of atmospheric color phenomena, differing from the well known physical theory of light scattering. Still, from a phenomenological point of view, it is just as adequate, and consistent in its logic as the physical explanation is on its part.