APOD: 2023 March 28 Б A Multiple Green Flash Sunset
Explanation:
Yes, but can your green flash do this?
A
green flash at sunset is a
rare event that many Sun watchers pride themselvesбon having seen.б
Once thought to be a myth, a
green flash
is now understood to occur when the Earth's atmosphere acts like both a
prism and a lens.
Different atmospheric
layers create altitude-variable
refraction that takes light from the
top of the Sun and disperses its colors,
creates two images, and magnifies it in just the right way to make a
thin sliver appear green just before it disappears.
Pictured,
though, is an even more unusual sunset.
From the high-altitude
Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory in
Chile one day last April,
the Sun was captured setting beyond an atmosphere with
multiple distinct thermal layers, creating severalб
mock images of the
Sun.б
This time and from this location, many of those layers produced a
green flash simultaneously.
Just seconds after this multiple-green-flash event was caught by
two well-surprisedбastrophotographers, the Sun set below the clouds.
Authors & editors:
Robert Nemiroff
(MTU) &
Jerry Bonnell
(USRA)
NASA Web Site Statements, Warnings,
and Disclaimers
NASA Official: Jay Norris.
Specific
rights apply.
A service of:
LHEA at
NASA /
GSFC
& Michigan Tech. U.
