True color

Afterglow

An afterglow is a broad arch of whitish or pinkish sunlight in the sky that is scattered by fine particulates like dust suspended in the atmosphere. An afterglow may appear above the highest clouds in the hour of fading twilight, or be reflected off high snowfields in mountain regions long after sunset. The particles produce a scattering effect upon the component parts of white light. True alpenglow, which occurs long after sunset or long before sunrise, is caused by the backscattering of red sunlight by aerosols and fine dust particles low in the atmosphere. After sunset, alpenglow is an afterglow caused by the illumination of atmospheric particles by sunlight as it gets refracted and scattered through the Earth's atmosphere. The high-energy and high-frequen… more »