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Peter Lowenstein
Mutare, Zimbabwe
05/23/2022
05:37 pm

Equipment Details:

Hand-held Panasonic Lumix DMC-ZS40 in sunset mode.

Post-processing Details:

Image size reduction only.

Image Details:

Another Amazing Volcanic Aerosol Sunset. After a weekend of cold overcast winter weather with 30 mm of rain, the sky quickly cleared on Monday (23rd) to reveal another amazing volcanic sunset produced by aerosols still present in the stratosphere from the Hunga-Tonga eruption. These have become more widespread and evenly distributed resulting in almost daily volcanic sunsets and sunrises which are now exhibiting two phases. These consist of relatively brief (15 to 20 minute) displays of very bright colours about three quarters of an hour after sunset or before sunrise and more prolonged colourful post-sunset and pre-dawn twilights which persist longer after sunset and appear earlier before sunrise. This would suggest that there are now two layers of aerosols – a lower and denser one which catches sunlight briefly and more intensely shortly after sunset or just before sunrise and a higher thinner one which catches setting or rising sunlight for much longer after sunset or before sunrise. This is quite likely as the eruption was so powerful that it ejected a huge volume of material all the way up to the mesosphere. As this will take a while to settle, colourful volcanic sunsets and sunrises are likely to persist (particularly in the Southern Hemisphere) for a few more months.

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