Incredibly colourful Volcanic Sunset reflects from the veranda of my house.
Clearing skies after several days of overcast with rain revealed an incredibly colourful volcanic sunset to the west of Mutare on Friday evening (22nd). The display, which peaked in intensity 30 minutes after sunset, took less than ten minutes to develop and only 15 minutes to fade. The recent colourful sunsets (and sunrises), caused by patches of stratospheric aerosols from the January eruption of Hunga-Tonga, appear to be decreasing in duration, but increasing in intensity as they either emerge from the east or recede towards the western horizons. They are not predictable and come and go at intervals of a few days. Bright sunrises are not necessarily followed by bright sunsets and vice versa. This suggests that the distribution of volcanic aerosols in the stratosphere has become more patchy and uneven as they circumnavigate the Southern Hemisphere and may have decreased in altitude? It would be interesting to know if any systematic scientific observations are being made? Information should be available from remote sensing satellites and some of the displays are so bright that they must visible from the ISS? Recent posts to Spaceweather.com by Noeleen Lowndes and Tara Williams in Qld Australia confirm the ground-based observations being made from Mutare. Any feedback would be very much appreciated.

Hand-held Panasonic Lumix DMC-ZS40 camera in sunset mode.

Image size reduction only.