Final answer:
The statement is true; the sun's radiation peaks in the visible light spectrum and is most intense in the yellow-green wavelength. This intensity, combined with atmospheric effects, gives the sun its yellowish appearance when observed from Earth.
Step-by-step explanation:
The statement that the radiation from the sun is most intense near the yellow-green wavelength is true. The sun emits a spectrum of electromagnetic radiation, and this emission includes visible light, which ranges from red to violet in color. Red light has the lowest frequencies and longest wavelengths, whereas violet has the highest frequencies and shortest wavelengths.
When considering the concept of blackbody radiation, which describes the radiation emitted by an idealized, non-reflective object at a given temperature, the sun’s radiation peaks in the visible part of the spectrum. However, the sun is more intense in the red than in the violet, giving it a yellowish appearance. Despite this, at the sun's effective surface temperature of approximately 6,000 K, the most intense radiation occurs in the yellow-green part of the spectrum, making this the peak of solar emission in the visible range.
Therefore, the perception of the sun as yellowish is in part due to the intensity distribution of sunlight, where it peaks in the visible region and the back-end effects of atmospheric scattering, which also influences how we perceive sunlight when observed from Earth's surface.