The importance of light in our lives is difficult to overestimate. All human activity depends on it from the initial periods to the present day. For light streams, the Earth’s atmosphere, which is in constant motion, is a kind of optical system in which parameters are constantly changing.
Examples of light phenomena in the atmosphere
The layers of the gas shell of our planet are mixed, changing their density, transparency, a part of the light is reflected in them, illuminating the earth's surface. In certain cases, the course of the rays is bent, creating the most amazing and colorful phenomena in the atmosphere. Some of them are very common, while others are not well known to people.
Not all physical phenomena are accessible to our eye. Light patterns of a star trail, for example, can only be detected with a slow shutter speed camera that captures how stars leave unique marks in the sky as the earth rotates around its axis. Therefore, special optical devices are often used.
Amazing in beauty and accessible for observation are natural atmospheric phenomena, which are the interaction of the play of light and the gas shell of our planet. Most often they arise due to the scattering of rays, their refraction and diffraction, when they go around the boundaries of opaque bodies. In the article, we consider unique examples of light phenomena that occur in the atmosphere.
Rainbow
In ancient times, it was considered a bridge connecting the earth and sky. The philosopher Descartes substantiated the theory of the appearance of the rainbow, based on the refraction of light rays. However, neither he, nor Newton, who supplemented the knowledge, could explain the origin of several such phenomena simultaneously observed in the sky. It was only in the 19th century that astronomer Erie could explain this phenomenon: he considered the curtain of rain as a structure in which light diffraction occurred. His theory is relevant to this day. A rainbow is observed when the sun shines on a rain sheet located on the side of the sky opposite the star. Often the eyes of an admiring viewer are presented with not one, but several rainbows, but the arrangement of colors in them is always the same.
Such light phenomena in wildlife are observed not only with a haze of rain, but also on water drops of fountains, and the moon, the sun and an ordinary searchlight serve as a source of light. Interestingly, scientists who set out to reproduce the phenomenon in artificial conditions received about nineteen images.
No doubt everyone saw the usual rainbow, but the night rainbow is considered a rare natural phenomenon. In the moonlight it appears white, but as soon as the raindrops become larger, it immediately turns into color. Such a phenomenon is still often observed over falling waterfalls.
Fire rainbow
Scientists attribute it to the rarest optical effect. It appears with a special arrangement of the sun above the horizon against the background of cirrus clouds, consisting of ice crystals, whose faces are parallel to the ground. Only under such conditions, light passes into a vertical face, is refracted and goes horizontal. And then our bewildered eyes appear clouds, reminiscent of a multi-colored blazing fire, the sky as if covered with a rainbow film.
Light pole
In ancient times, light phenomena created by the sun were often mistaken for mystical omens. Physics, on the other hand, explains such pillars as the play of sunlight with ice crystals formed in the upper atmosphere. A natural phenomenon will always have the color of a light source, and it may turn out to be the sun, moon, or any lantern. But if they are formed by natural luminaries, then such columns turn out to be much longer.
A light pole is formed in the cold season. Ice crystals evaporate at sub-zero temperatures, at the surface of the earth they are fog, able to reflect lights in the form of columns well. This natural phenomenon constantly arises in the winter in Niagara Falls, and crystals reflect light only from spotlights.
Bioluminescence in the Maldives
Light phenomena in living nature sometimes destroy our ideas about them. Vaadhoo Island is known for the inimitable bluish glow that millions of phytoplankton living in water emit. It seems that the stars are reflected on the surface of the water. In fact, bioluminescence is a complex chemical process that occurs in the body of microbes. The glow from the water moves along with the rolling waves, making an indelible impression on tourists. However, with sunrise, the unique phenomenon fades and completely disappears.
Lights of St. Elmo
Unusual examples of light phenomena in physics are observed during a thunderstorm or storm. The sailors said that frightening lights appeared on the masts and disappeared without a trace. Such phenomena have long been studied by science, they always arise on single and pointed objects, when the electric field strength rises around them. Glow also appears on the tops of mountains or trees, at the corners of high-rises. It represents the flickering of individual lights, and sometimes it is mistaken for a raging flame. However, the hissing phenomenon of light blue does not burn and does not burn, but lasts no more than one minute.
Polar Lights
There are amazingly beautiful examples of light phenomena that are always surrounded by a mystical halo. Ancient Eskimo and Native American legends tell about the souls of the dead, who flew into the sky to the palace above the North Star. For those who are alive, it is invisible, but you can observe the light falling on the clouds when the inhabitants of heaven open their windows. Mysterious stories are known when the whole village went into the polar night, leaving their homes, with the appearance of a pulsating glow.
An explanation is also found in this legend: when the gods open the windows, they call living people to themselves, and they go to the call to the North Star, finding the last refuge there. This is truly a mysterious phenomenon, shrouded in mysteries. There are known studies of scientists who tried using powerful transmitters and radars to create an artificial phenomenon, coupled with the creation of low-frequency electric fields that affect the human psyche. The works were classified, and even now little is known about them.
In the form of bright spots, similar to clouds, and expressive huge ribbons, examples of light phenomena during the aurora are presented. The latter appear with a powerful glow, as soon as the intensity disappears, they break into spots. Aurora is a glow of the upper atmosphere with a magnetic field when interacting with charged particles of the stream from the solar corona into the surrounding space. During the glow, reminiscent of a huge veil, stretching for thousands of kilometers, electric currents arise in the atmosphere, awakening magnetic storms.
Sound and light phenomena accompany the appearance of aurora, because noises and cods that affect radio transmitters join bright flashes, as a result of which the connection is interrupted or completely terminated.
Finally
The physical nature of light phenomena has been the subject of research by people since ancient times. The optical effects that occur in the atmospheric layers of the earth are considered and justified from a scientific point of view. The examples of light phenomena in physics given in the review, and not only them, have repeatedly become a real shock for a person, however, even the most complex and bizarre paintings now find their explanation. And many phenomena were repeated in artificial conditions. The play of light has long attracted and for a long time will be the subject of admiration for other generations, watching how the sun's ray or moonlight gives our planet a unique look.