Never seen before! Purple Sunset invisible to naked eyes...

Digging onto the great Atoptics site to learn about Atmospherics phenomenom, I just found a wonderful sunset photography with a sun color that I never saw before.

On a flight from Geneva to Warsaw, Philip Laven saw the low sun disappear behind clouds. But his camera viewfinder showed a different scene - a purple sunset.

"The amazing thing was that, with my unaided eyes, the sun was completely invisible. However, the purple sun remained clearly visible on my camera for about 2 minutes "

Digital cameras are sensitive to near infrared radiation. Here, the water droplets in the cloud bank have scattered and obscured the direct visible light of shorter wavelength but still transmit a small fraction of the sun's infrared.

The solar image is quite flattened because the picture was taken at fairly high altitude and rays from the sun then undergo differential refraction twice - on entering and leaving the dense lower atmosphere.

The peculiar violet colour is an artifact of the camera sensor. CCD sensors respond to infrared in the range 750-1150 nm (visible light is about 400 - 700nm). Cameras therefore have to contain infrared blocking filters but these usually allow some residual rays through. The infrared sensitivity depends on the camera, test your own by pointing it at your TV remote control from a distance of 6 inches or so.

source

reply to post by elevenaugust


wow that is amazing . does this happen all the time and we just
cant see it with the naked eye or is this something new
either way it is a wonderful pick thanks for sharing it

Wow! What a beautiful picture!
I love our planet and all amazing sights it shows us all the time.

Originally posted by intheknow29
reply to post by elevenaugust

 

wow that is amazing . does this happen all the time and we just
cant see it with the naked eye or is this something new
either way it is a wonderful pick thanks for sharing it

You're welcome!

No, it happens all the time, but this is the first time I see it.

reply to post by elevenaugust


oh ok still very cool pic and its the first purple sun ive ever seen

reply to post by elevenaugust


What a beautiful sight to see!

thank you, s+f