So - the first time I EVER heard about 'The Green Flash' was when I was visiting my cousin in San Diego - many moons ago... (I used to stop off with her for a few wild days before starting my real holiday elsewhere in the States).
Anyway, she used to take me to fabulous places - one of them was a little cafe on the beach called ... 'The Green Flash'. The explanation is quite technical, but really interesting - I love the way these phenomenona occur in nature.
Apparently the best place to see a green flash on the horizon (over water) so chances of me seeing one here at home is minimal...
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| ... proof that I did in fact visit ... my matches collection in the kitchen ... |
Here's the tecnhical explanation from the website of the cafe that I visited:
The "Green Flash" is a rarely-viewed optical phenomenon which occurs at sunset at the instant that the upper rim of the sun is in coincidence with the horizon. The "Green Flash" is caused by a combination of optical effects called light scattering and light dispersion.
Sunlight is composed of all the colors of the visible spectrum. Blue light is the component part of the visible spectrum that is strongly scattered by the earth's atmosphere at sunset, therefore sunlight tends to lack blue when the sun is near the horizon. Dispersion is the splitting of whitelight into its component parts. The red end of the visible spectrum shows the least amount of dispersion since it is refracted the least.
At sunset, most of the orange and yellow light is absorbed by the earth's atmosphere, while the blue and violet light is scattered. Once the red light portion of the spectrum has already set below the horizon, all that is left is the green, which is occasionally seen as a short intense flash. Under ideal conditions, one may perceive a brilliant green flash at the moment of sunset.
The "Green Flash" is a rarely-viewed optical phenomenon which occurs at sunset at the instant that the upper rim of the sun is in coincidence with the horizon. The "Green Flash" is caused by a combination of optical effects called light scattering and light dispersion.
Sunlight is composed of all the colors of the visible spectrum. Blue light is the component part of the visible spectrum that is strongly scattered by the earth's atmosphere at sunset, therefore sunlight tends to lack blue when the sun is near the horizon. Dispersion is the splitting of whitelight into its component parts. The red end of the visible spectrum shows the least amount of dispersion since it is refracted the least.
At sunset, most of the orange and yellow light is absorbed by the earth's atmosphere, while the blue and violet light is scattered. Once the red light portion of the spectrum has already set below the horizon, all that is left is the green, which is occasionally seen as a short intense flash. Under ideal conditions, one may perceive a brilliant green flash at the moment of sunset.
Fabulous isn't it???
So next time someone mentions 'The Green Flash' you'll know it's something REAL and they're not just being rude ;-)
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| Photograph courteousy of Don |
~ the world is a wonderful place ~
