'Afterglow' Effect of a Volcanic Eruption Turns Skies Pink-Purple in Antarctica

The skies have dazzling hues, scientists call the view "incredible."

Representational image.

(Photo: iStock)

In January this year, an undersea volcano erupted reaching more than 19 km above sea level in New Zealand. The Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha’apai volcanic eruption also caused a massive Tsunami.

This volcano released aerosols in the stratosphere that are now causing a bright pink-purple glow in the sky, which is being called an "afterglow" effect of the Tongan eruption.

In the pictures captured by a scientist working in Antarctica, the moon glows orange against a surreal-looking bright violet and pink-purple landscape.

Scientists in the Antarctica reported this phenomenon, according to The Guardian.

“Believe it or not, I haven’t edited these colours either, they are pretty much as we saw them. It’s incredible,” Stuart Shaw, a science technician with Antarctica New Zealand who clicked these pictures, told The Guardian.

Scientists have also found more than usual aerosols above Antarctica. These aerosols stay in the stratosphere for a long time after a volcano erupts and they bend light to generate these colours and create an "afterglow."

"The volcanic twilights are known as “afterglows,” with the colour and intensity dependent on the amount of haze and cloudiness along the path of light reaching the stratosphere."

Nava Fedaeff, a forecaster at Niwa told The Guardian.

Aerosols are very small particles, they could be solid or liquid droplets suspended in the air.

Photos clicked by Stuart Shaw can be seen here.

"We were presented with quite a show, which had most of the station personnel grabbing jackets and running outside with their cameras to look at the awesome colours," Shaw told The Guardian.

(With inputs from The Guardian.)