Green Rim and Flash Over the Notre Dame de la Garde in Marseille, France
February 19, 2014
Photographer: Alain Origne; Alain's Web site
Summary Authors: Alain Origne; Jim Foster
This photo above shows the Sun setting over the Notre Dame de la Garde basilica in Marseille, France. It was captured from Allauch, France, a little village 7 mi (12 km) distant from the basilica. Looking at the insets, note the green rim of the Sun and the green flash as the Sun moves closer to the horizon. Because of atmospheric dispersion when the Sun lies low, separate images of each spectral color will occur. This results in the uppermost rim of the Sun flashing green colors. What’s particularly interesting here is that the green flash occured during partly cloudy skies. Usually, green colors can only be easily observed during anticyclonic conditions -- clear skies and clean air. The interval of time between the individual inset photos is about one half second. Photos taken at 6:13 p.m. December 28, 2012.
Photo details: Nikon D7000 (APS) camera; telens Nikkor Ai 400 mm lens; focal length f/6.3 focal length; manual focus on tripod; 200 ISO; 1/6 sec. exposure time; f/8.