Green Flashes at Sunset.....

After the Moon Illusion story I thought I would pass along another interesting Cosmic Phenomena relayed to me by Killieman Mike at work.....the "Green Flash....Mike first heard of this while vacationing in the Florida Keys......Green flashes and green rays are rare optical phenomena that occur shortly after sunset or before sunrise, when a green spot is visible for a short period of time above the sun, or a green ray shoots up from the sunset point.

Green flashes can be observed from any altitude (even from the air). They are usually seen at an unobstructed horizon, such as over the ocean, but are possible over cloud-tops and mountain-top as well.

As stated in the Wikipedia article..

"The reason for a green flash lies in refraction of light (as in a prism) in the atmosphere: light moves more slowly in the lower, denser air than in the thinner air above, so sunlight rays follow paths that curve slightly, in the same direction as the curvature of the Earth. Higher frequency light (green/blue) curves more than lower frequency light (red/orange), so green/blue rays from the upper limb of the setting sun remain visible after the red rays are obstructed by the curvature of the earth. Green flashes are enhanced by atmospheric inversions, which increase the density gradient in the atmosphere, and therefore increase refraction. A green flash is more likely to be seen in clear air, when more of the light from the setting sun reaches the observer without being scattered. We might expect to see a blue flash, but the blue is preferentially scattered out of our line of sight and remaining light ends up looking green.

With slight magnification a green rim on the top limb of the solar disk can be seen on most clear-day sunsets. However the flash or ray effects require a stronger layering of the atmosphere and a mirage which serves to magnify the green for a fraction of a second to a couple of seconds."

Check it out for yourself, and let me know if it works......mag