Antarctica turns pink after Tonga volcanic eruption: The science behind the phenomenon

Tragic volcanic eruption in Tonga caused Antarctica it turns pink until six months after the event.

Scientists were surprised after the distribution of photos of the pink panorama in Antarcticaregion located 7000 km from the island Tonga.

What is the connection between the eruption in Tonga and the pink skies of Antarctica?

Scientists working in Antarctica reported this recent phenomenon to the New Zealand National Institute of Water and Atmosphere (Niwa), after realizing that the same thing was happening in the southernmost region of the world.

“Usually in the middle of winter Antarctica it’s almost always dark here, except for a little ‘nautical twilight’ around noon, which means the horizon is barely visible in good conditions,” said Stewart Shaw, Antarctica New Zealand Scientist. Guardian. He took some of these photos as recently as July of this year.

“Believe it or not, I didn’t edit those colors either, they’re more or less the way we saw them,” Shaw said. “Incredible.”

The truth is that according to data from the lidar satellite, laser radar, there is a large amount of aerosols above the Earth’s stratosphere. Antarctica which did not exist until January, the month when the tragedy occurred in Oceania.

“Stratospheric aerosols can circulate around the globe for months after a volcanic eruption, scattering and deflecting light as the sun sets or rises below the horizon, creating skyglows of pinks, blues, purples and violets,” said Nava Fedaeff, Niwa. forecaster

Volcanic twilight is known as “afterglow,” and the color and intensity depend on the amount of haze and cloudiness in the path of light reaching the stratosphere, he says.

“We share the same sky”

According to Geordie Hendrix, both Antarctica and Tonga They have one sky.

“Much of the science we support is focused on understanding the dynamics of the atmosphere, oceans, and ecosystems and helping to better understand the relationship between AntarcticaNew Zealand and the rest of the world,” he said.

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