It was a supernatural event that scientists based in Antarctica recently witnessed.
A technician stationed at the Scott base for a New Zealand research agency was able to photograph a completely pink sky.
This is a phenomenon of remanence, or "afterglow" in English, explains Futura Science.
The sky over Antarctica turned pink due to the January eruption of the Hunga-Tonga-Hunga-Haapai volcano in the Pacific Ocean.
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The moment is as beautiful as it is unexpected, since it is currently winter in the southern hemisphere and the skies of Antarctica remain dark most of the time.
The phenomenon is also visible during "fire skies" at sunset, after a storm or a cloud of showers.
The more particles in the atmosphere, the more spectacular the colors because the sunlight would scatter more.
A journey of several thousand kilometers
As part of the recently observed pinkish sky, the aerosols, mainly sulphate, are believed to be coming from the submarine volcano located in the Tonga Islands.
This projected water vapor and dust during its last eruption, in January 2022. But aerosols can circulate for several months in the atmosphere.
It was therefore only much later that the sky changed color in New Zealand and later in Antarctica.
These particles had a long journey, since the volcanic eruption took place 7,000 km from the Scott base.
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