[at-l] Did anyone see the sky last night?

[infinity1plus1 at yahoo.com (Robert)]

Just because it's dark out doesn't mean that the sun doesn't affect the sky. Even at midnight, the light from the sun can travel through a great deal of atmosphere and cause effects on the dark side of our planet. 
 
As for the green color, I found this interesting tidbit.
 
"Natural blood-red sky at night is comparatively rare. Perhaps once a decade, huge flares on the sun generate red auroras that spread over much of the earth's surface and sometimes cause the sky to appear red.

"In recent years, artifically red nighttime skies have been created over limited parts of the earth. Rocket-borne releases of a few pounts of the element lithium make markers in the sky that can be easily photographed to measure winds in the high atmosphere.

"Many Alaskans and Yukoners are familiar with the barium releases made aboard rockets launched from the Poker Flat rocket range near Fairbanks. These releases create two types of cloud. One is a neutral green cloud that moves with the wind. The other is a bluish purple cloud that striates like a rayed aurora and moves under the influence of the electric field in the high atmosphere."
This came from seismologist T. Neil Davis at the Geophysical Institute, University of Alaska Fairbanks, in cooperation with the UAF research community.

Jim Bullard <jbullar1@twcny.rr.com> wrote:
At 10:44 AM 6/13/2005 -0400, Shelly Hale wrote:
>Uh, Rob, this spectacular sky show was going on at about midnight and not 
>at sunrise or sunset.

Once upon a time many moons ago I witnessed a sky phenomenon I will never 
forget. As I was driving I saw a bright red glow to the left of the highway 
and about 15 degrees above the horizon. It rapidly grew larger then 
disappeared in an instant. "What the hell?" I said and my daughter, who was 
riding with me looked up just in time to see the second light appear in the 
sky. It was about the same position, intense green and very bright. It 
split into two then diffused into cloud-like masses that grew rapidly and 
disappeared suddenly just as the red one had. Like Shelly's it was at too 
late an hour to have been a sunset effect. There are things we can't explain.


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