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the Eruption of a distant Russian volcano in June it's sunrise and sunset in the world on a beautiful purple hue.
According to researchers at the University of Colorado, Boulder, the volcano Raikoke sulfur dioxide in the atmosphere, resulting in the creation of tiny particles called aerosols. Aerosols disperse the sunlight, giving more purple to sunrise and sunset.
"You realize that it's not necessary to inject a lot of aerosols into the stratosphere to change the composition," said Lars Kalnajs, research associate at the physics lab of the US. Atmosphere and space of Columbia University, said in a statement. "It was a relatively small volcanic eruption, but sufficient to affect most of the northern hemisphere."
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Raikoke is located on the chain of Kuril Islands of the Kamchatka Peninsula. On June 22, he came back to life with an eruption of steam and gas that rose 2 km. It was the first time that the volcano had erupted since 1924, according to the Smithsonian Institution's global volcanism program.
Because of its remote location, the only threat of the eruption was the possibility that airplanes encounter the cloud of dust and ashes, a danger that declined in the early days following the event. But the volcanic plume has risen well in the stratosphere, the second layer of Earth's atmosphere, about 11 km above the Kamchatka region, according to NASA Earth Observatory. According to data from the Calipso satellite, the ash plume reached a height of 13 km.
Kalnajs and his colleagues wanted to detect signs of this ash plume in the stratosphere. After launching a weather balloon near Laramie, Wyoming, in August, researchers found that aerosol layers in this level of the atmosphere were 20 times thicker than normal after the aerosols were in the air. Raikoke eruption. The team plans to publish its findings in a peer-reviewed journal later this year.
Depending on the size of the rash, aerosols in the atmosphere can affect much more than sunset. In 1815, for example, Mount Tambora in what is today Indonesia has rejected a huge amount of sulfur dioxide. The resulting aerosols created temporary global cooling, causing strange weather conditions and crop failures. As a result, 1816 was known as "the year without summer". Contemporary European artists captured some of the colorful sunsets caused by Tambora, a 2014 study found. Similarly, the purple sunrises and sunsets caused by Raikoke have inspired nature photographers this summer. In August, Colorado nature photographer Glenn Randall captured one of the most beautiful volcanic sunrays on Lake Isabelle in Indian Peaks Wilderness, Colorado.
Although the Raikoke eruption was much smaller than that of Tambora, the event was a good test of scientists' ability to monitor the atmosphere, Kalnajs said in its statement.
"A very big eruption would have a major impact on humanity, so it's something for which we must be ready," said the scientist.
Originally published on Science live.
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