A volcano erupting in Russia has caused purple sunsets around the world

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A school team noticed that during the summer, the sunrises and sunsets had turned purple. They sent a high-altitude balloon to collect particle samples in the Earth's stratosphere, according to a school press release released last week.

"These particles, or aerosols, disperse the sunlight as it passes through the air, which, combined with the absorption of light by the ozone layer, gives rise to the sunrise and fall. sunset this purple hue, "says the release.

On June 22, the Russian volcano called Raikoke burst, sending ash and volcanic gases from its crater 700 meters wide into the atmosphere. The eruption was so significant that it could be seen by astronauts from the International Space Station, NASA said in a statement.

At a normal, non-volcanic sunset, sunlight must pass through a significant amount of the Earth's atmosphere and a blue light scatters aerosols that she encounters. This means that less blue light reaches our eyes from the near sun directions, making the orange and red sky appear.

When volcanic aerosols are present in the stratosphere, the blue light scattered by aerosols closer to the surface of the Earth can again disperse, this time to our eyes and our cameras. This blue light mixes with the red light already emitted by the sun, giving the sky a purple color.

Lars Kalnajs, research associate at the School's Laboratory of Atmospheric and Space Physics, led the project and said the rash was not a cause for concern, but warned that "it's not a cause for alarm." you had to prepare for a bigger one.

Why did a volcanic eruption cause a year without a summer? in 1816

"A very big eruption would have a major impact on humanity," Kalnajs said in a press release.

He cites an eruption on Mount Tambora in 1815 that led to a "summerless year" due to the presence of ash and volcanic materials in the atmosphere.

"There have been poor harvests all over the world, and the ice in the Pennsylvania rivers has not melted until the month of June," Kalnajs said.

This is one of the reasons his team conducts research after the Raikoke eruption. Preliminary data collected to date show that some layers of aerosols from the stratosphere were 20 times thicker than normal as a result of the eruption, according to a press release.

"This makes you realize that you do not need to put a lot of aerosols in the stratosphere to change the composition," Kalnajs said. "It was a relatively small volcanic eruption, but sufficient to touch most of the northern hemisphere."

The group's research is expected to be released later this year.

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