How Smoke From Canada's , Wildfires Has Transformed , Skies in the U.S.
'The New York Times' reports that atmospheric scattering
is why skies across the northeastern United States have
turned orange amid heavy smoke from Canadian wildfires.
On a normal day with a blue sky, sunlight bounces off
of molecules of air in the atmosphere, scattering high
energy colors with shorter wavelengths into blue light.
Larger smoke particles scatter
the orange and red colors
in the light from the sun.
The resulting surreal haze
is also closely related to how
the sky appears at sunset.
As the sun travels closer to the horizon, only longer
wavelengths can travel through the atmosphere to
be perceived as the reddish hues visible at sunset.
'NYT' reports that hundreds of fires continue to burn across
Eastern Canada, spreading clouds of hazardous air
pollution across a large swath of the eastern U.S.
Air quality warnings have been
issued for areas spanning
from New York to the Carolinas.
Air quality warnings have been
issued for areas spanning
from New York to the Carolinas.
On June 7, major cities experienced unhealthy
levels of air pollution, including
Philadelphia, Washington and New York.
'NYT' reports that while air quality is expected to improve in parts of the Northeast, smoke from the ongoing fires continues to spread across the U.S.
On June 8, Canadian authorities said that approximately
250 wildfires were burning out of control in the eastern part of the
country. Some of those fires have already burned for weeks.