{"id":837279,"date":"2026-08-01T07:05:37","date_gmt":"2026-08-01T07:05:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/837279\/"},"modified":"2026-08-01T07:05:37","modified_gmt":"2026-08-01T07:05:37","slug":"nasa-documents-impact-of-wildfires-on-sunlight-the-sun-turns-red-due-to-smoke-and-ashes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/837279\/","title":{"rendered":"NASA documents impact of wildfires on sunlight: the sun turns red due to smoke and ashes"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>A surprising optical phenomenon transformed the sky into a spectacle of crimson tones due to the interaction of sunlight with the dense smoke from <a href=\"https:\/\/noticiasambientales.com\/compromiso-ambiental\/reforestacion-provincial-un-hotel-de-cordoba-dona-un-arbol-nativo-por-cada-huesped-que-se-aloja\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">massive forest fires<\/a>. This event was recently highlighted by <a href=\"https:\/\/science.nasa.gov\/climate-change\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\">NASA<\/a> through its platform Astronomy Picture of the Day (APOD), documenting how suspended particles transformed the usual appearance of the sun into a striking red disk.<\/p>\n<p>The Impact of Fires on Sunlight<\/p>\n<p>The captured image shows a sun dyed deep red as it hides behind dense layers of aerosol, composed of ash and soot. This type of event occurs when intense fires release large amounts of microparticles into the atmosphere, significantly altering the passage of sunlight to Earth.<\/p>\n<p>The phenomenon does not imply a change in the star itself but is the result of light scattering. The tiny carbon particles in the smoke are ideal for scattering shorter wavelengths, such as blue and green.<\/p>\n<p>This process of selective scattering causes the Sun\u2019s light spectrum to lose its cool tones, resulting in a reddish appearance that can be observed without glare.<\/p>\n<p>Experts from the NASA\u2019s APOD program explain that, under normal conditions, the atmosphere scatters blue light due to nitrogen and oxygen molecules. However, the massive presence of fire aerosols introduces larger particles that alter the dynamics of sunlight differently.<\/p>\n<p>Additionally, the material published by the NASA scientific portal warns about the associated ecological and health risks. Fine particles, known as PM2.5, which cause the crimson tone, pose a significant risk to human respiratory health and wildlife as they remain in the air for extended periods.<\/p>\n<p>NASA\u2019s astronomical data also indicates that the red hue of the Sun is accentuated during sunrise and sunset. At these times, the path of light traverses a larger portion of the atmosphere, increasing the effect of smoke in filtering blue light.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A surprising optical phenomenon transformed the sky into a spectacle of crimson tones due to the interaction of&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":837280,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[152924,64,63,409658,131,409659,128,31904,4357],"class_list":["post-837279","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-science","tag-aerosols","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-light-scattering","tag-nasa","tag-red-sun","tag-science","tag-smoke","tag-wildfires"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/837279","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=837279"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/837279\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/837280"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=837279"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=837279"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=837279"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}