viernes, 14 de abril de 2017

The Show of the Atmosphere

It is shocking to look at those pictures of Earth, taken from space, and realize that our atmosphere is just an extremelly thin layer on top of the huge ball of rock (solid outside, molten inside). The diameter of Earth is more than 12 thousand kilometers, right? So, the atmosphere is only, being generous, 100 km thick (less than 1%), and most of the air is in the lower say 20 km or less. That is very little air… and still that's crucial for our survival, and for all the biosphere of the planet. In that air we all breathe, yes, but also in that small amount of air is were we dump all our gaseous garbage, planes fly, and where most of the water cycle takes place, where winds, storms develop, clouds grow, sunsets and sunrises get red or pink.

Yes, the atmosphere is precious, essential for our species. And, on top of that, it gives us amazing shows from time to time. From my place, I'm gifted with a nice sunset every evening 


Recently I had the opportunity of watching and enjoying two beautiful sunsets from other places. One of them still in Cambrils, from the beach. Suddenly, a rather boring afternoon converged in a slow burst of western fire, as the sun hid behind some casual clouds… looked like the mountains to the south were burning, or exploding, or a volcano had popped up somewhere in Tivissa… I took several pictures, otherwise I would be applauding the show. By the way I heard this expression for the first  time many years ago from a radio station in Houston, TX, while I was driving to work… they mentioned the fantastic sunrise and jokingly (or not!?) said that drivers were stopping on the side of the highway to watch the sunrise and cheer and applaud… I thought it was touching and exciting… for a change someone was looking at the sky above.




The second was a sunset in Jávea, Alicante province. Scattered clouds, light showers, and suddenly a piece of rainbow over the sea, cloud tops illuminated by the low sun. That wet and golden light. 


Then I thought it was over, the sun had set at the opposite side of the sea, when I realized that very dim, there where some light rays that appeared to converge at exactly the opposite side of the sunset… I looked twice, my wife also saw them, so they were real… I remembered, deep in my almost erased memory circuits, having read something about these rays. Later, I checked  and indeed they are well known and not rare, if you look at the right place and time. They are called anti-crepuscular rays, and are actually parallel, but perspective from the observer makes them look like convergent. Not easy to see in the picture below, but that's what I got.




The atmosphere gives us many, many moments of beauty, never the same, always amazing… up to us to enjoy them. It is still for free… Like this bonus sunrise I took in February.








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