Wildfire smoke can make the sun glow
Each sunrise or sunset is unique, but there are times when the rising or setting sun puts on more vibrant displays.
There’s something more unique about this photo that was recently taken at sunset by Judith Brennan in Little Bras d’or, N.S.
By looking at the reddishpink appearance of the sun and the grey sky, I immediately thought there must’ve been wildfire smoke present. Sure enough, I confirmed my suspicions on satellite imagery where you could clearly see some smoke visible in the atmosphere and overhead.
As I’ve discussed previously, at sunrise and sunset when the sun is at a lower angle, sunlight must pass through a greater amount of our atmosphere, allowing shorter wavelengths like violet, indigo and blue to be scattered and deflected, making longer wavelengths like yellow, orange and red visible.
However, the presence of wildfire smoke can filter out even more of the sunlight, which allows the sky to be more muted or subdued, with the sun often appearing dark orange, red or pink depending on the amount of smoke. The smoke was brought here by the upper-level winds in the jet stream.
Large or out-of-control wildfires can produce mass amounts of smoke. That smoke rises into the atmosphere. Depending on the
concentration, it can be sent thousands of kilometres away from the actual fire. It’s not uncommon for wildfire smoke to end up in our skies and at times upper-level winds
have managed to carry smoke across the pond to Europe.
While smoke from western fires rarely affects our air quality at the surface, it can often make for hazy conditions and
more vibrant sunrises and sunsets.
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