Afterglow
The
afterglow is the broad high arch of whitish or rosy light appearing occasionally in the
sky above the highest
clouds in the hour of deepening twilight, or
reflected from the high snowfields in
mountain regions long after
sunset. The phenomenon is due to very fine particles of
dust suspended in the high regions of the
atmosphere that produce a scattering effect upon the component parts of
white light. After the eruption of
Krakatoa in
1883, a remarkable series of
red sunsets appeared all over the world. These were due to an enormous amount of exceedingly fine dust blown to a great height by that terrific explosion, and then universally diffused by the high atmospheric currents.
Dust particles cause other similar phenomenona, like the Gegenschein.
- (from an old encyclopedia)
Afterglow