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Sep 23, 2014
Aurora and Volcanic Light Pillar
Image Credit & Copyright: Stéphane Vetter (Nuits sacrées)
Courtesy of http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/astropix.html
Aurora and Volcanic Light Pillar
Image Credit & Copyright: Stéphane Vetter (Nuits sacrées)
Courtesy of http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/astropix.html
That's no sunset.
And that thin red line just above it -- that's not a
sun pillar.
The red glow on the horizon originates from a
volcanic eruption,
and the red line is the eruption's reflection from fluttering
atmospheric ice crystals.
This unusual volcanic
light pillar was captured over
Iceland earlier this month.
The featured scene looks north from
Jökulsárlón toward the erupting volcano
Bárðarbunga in the
Holuhraun lava field.
Even the foreground sky is picturesque, with textured grey
clouds in the lower atmosphere, shimmering green
aurora in the upper atmosphere, and bright stars far in the distance.
Although the last eruption from Holuhraun was in 1797, the present
volcanic activity
continues.
