A Few Words & Images
Sunset in France (Photo by Patrice Arnaudet)
Thu, July 17, 2008 - 3:10 AM
www.spaceweather.com/swpod20...det1.jpg
"Sometimes you just can't believe your own eyes. This is one of those time.
"Contrary to appearances, the landscape is not on fire. "
This is just a cloudy sunset over open countryside in France," says Patrice Arnaudet, who took the picture on July 13th using a Canon 350D digital camera. "There was no fire."
Blame the trickery on Rayleigh scattering.
hyperphysics.phy-astr.gsu.edu/Hba...html
Tiny particles in the air, including air molecules themselves, scatter blue light more so than red. When the sun sets, so much blue is scattered, the remaining rays can become extremely reddened. In Arnaudet's photo, Rayleigh-scattered sunbeams are painting the clouds the color of wildfire...."
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Fri, July 18, 2008 - 4:26 PM
We had a couple sunsets like that in Berkeley this year.
One of my favorite sunset effects is when a thin layer of high clouds near the horizon act like a mirror and the sun splits into two halves as it sets up and down at the same time. I have been fortunate enough to see this happen only a couple times in my life and I will never forget either experience. |
