Some of you will think this headline is a hoax, while others might vaguely remember a family elder talking about the green flash that was said to occur at sunset. The story seems far-fetched, but there is validity, too.
When I first heard the green flash story, I rejected it. I’d never seen such a light — and I’d seen enough sunsets to know if it happened!
I wasn’t asked about it every semester, but 1 in 100 people would bring it up. It was a question that didn’t seem to go away. Was it myth or fact? If the green flash was real, how would they capture it if they saw it?
Ninety-nine per cent of my class was shocked after hearing this strange sunset revelation. Once the class became aware of it, everyone was curious. The first time I was presented with it was way back in ’96.
“What causes it?”
I raised an eyebrow to the student and replied, “A green flash, you say? Really? When does this happen?”
“Like I said, as the sun goes down. They say there’s a flash of green light.”
“Have you seen it yourself?”
“No, but they say it happens.”
They?
I never came to know who they were. It didn’t matter. We had fun with the topic, speculating what could cause it and then moved on. As I’d never seen the flash, I couldn’t advise on how to photograph it. I put the story down to cross-contamination of information — bits of past stories that created a new one.
I was asked about it a year later. I was asked the following semester, too. The accumulation of questions that followed the next 8 years made me consider that there was some substance to the story. Each time it came up, I returned the question to the class. “Has anyone else seen or heard about this green flash?”
I wanted to use the class’s collective knowledge to see where it came from.
A resounding no came back. No one apart from the student who raised it was aware of the story. They never knew where they heard it, too. I was perplexed about this strange event that did and didn’t exist. What was the source of this odd tale? Something caused it to appear in the human psyche. What could make a flash of green light occur? My thoughts turned towards the physics of light.
Photographers know about light’s refractive properties. They also know about redshift and why the sky is golden at sunrise and sunset. Earth’s atmosphere causes the sun’s light to split. The lower the sun is, the redder it appears to be. My green flash theory was tied to this transition. I believed some part of the green spectrum was being bent swiftly, revealing itself briefly in the final stages of a sunset. It was only a working theory, as I found no document to prove it (the Internet was new. Googling wasn’t yet practised).
In early 2002, I saw it for myself, or at least I thought I did. It was easy to miss. The sun was no longer in the sky. Yes, it was an actual, small, subtle green light, and not what I expected. I’ve always anticipated a blinding flash of momentary light, but this light was barely noticeable. It wasn’t blinding.
So, there are two unique conditions to factor in when hunting down this mysterious green flash:
- It comes as the sun vanishes
- It’s small, soft, a momentary glow (don’t think flash)
This explains why so few people see it or know about it. Even those who are in a position to watch sunsets regularly will miss it. I’m sure if a hundred people were watching the same sunset at the same time from the same vantage point, only one or two would recognise the moment when it occurred and then doubt themselves afterwards.
Historical Mentions
The story goes back to ancient sailors. Men with nothing to do on a ship’s deck but look at the sky became familiar with the sun’s light. Any brief change in it could easily be described as a flash (Unfortunately, cameras weren’t around to capture what they saw). A three-hundred-year-old account of what ancient sailors say was a flash doesn’t compare to what a flash represents to modern-day people.
If what I saw was right, I would say it was a momentary glow, not a flash.
The phenomenon is not sunset-exclusive. Sunrises can show a green flash, too. Some say it’s a far better way to see it because our morning eyes are better at measuring the subtleties of light.
Let me make it clear that it doesn’t happen every day. It’s a rare phenomenon that appears only when atmospheric conditions are right. (I’m sure it involves rising warm air pockets between the viewer and the setting sun, bending light — like a mirage)
Owing to the vast number of cameras pointed at sunsets and sunrises worldwide, we can do online searches and find the elusive green light. There are even videos showing it as it’s happening, and you’ll be amazed at what you see when watching them! You’ll also understand why so many people are exposed to it yet never see it!
So there you go. The green flash seen at sunset is really real, after all!
Discover more from Michael Forman – Author of Dark Fiction & Drama
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