Icelandic volcano creates incredible red sunset pictures
Friday, April 16th, 2010
The spectacular sunset seen over most of Briatin last night was caused by the fine ash particles thrown into the atmosphere from the erupting Eyjafjallajökull volcano in southern Iceland.
This is predicted to be the first of many Volcanic sunsets as the ash cloud grows and spews out more into the sky.
satellite pictures show the cloud over the Outer Hebrides and northern Scotland, a busy flight path for air traffic from Europe to the America’s.
It is expected that the disruption to air traffic over europe could last for up to six months.
The volcanic plume, measuring over 1000 miles long has reached heights of 40 thousand feet and is being carried over europe by the high polar winds.
The winds that flow around the northern hemisphere, called the jet stream and can reach speeds of several hundred miles an hour.
These dramatic pictures are created by ash filtering the suns rays as it passes through the upper atmosphere.
The ash removes the shorter blue and green wavelengths from the sunlight spectrum, leaving only these stunning ruby red rays to create a dramatic effect.
A blue moon is one of the other effects that can be caused by the spectacular plume of ash rising to affect the way light travels through the upper layers of the sky.
Although, because of the lack of uniformity in the size and shape of the ash, a red moon is more likely.
Scientists do not currently see a risk to any human life, although people with asthma in Scotland have been warned to carry their medicines with them.
Paul Harwood
Twitter: @swns
Related tags.
Discussion
Contact us about this story
(We try to reply to all your e-mails within 48 hours). You can also register with us to recieve updates.
