Bluer skies?

Right after 9/11 I noticed that, with no air traffic, the skies were haze-free and seemed bluer. With the downturn in air travel right now, I think I'm seeing the same thing, less haze and a more saturated blue. Is it just me, or has anybody else noticed this? Obviously you need a clear day. I remember going out and taking some pictures back then, but photographs aren't any scientific way of comparing. Nor is memory. No doubt science has some tool, but I don't know what it is.

Yes, I noticed it, too, after 9/11 (it's been rainy here this week) and I remember thinking I hadn't seen the sky that blue or shadows that sharply defined in decades. Not long after that, I read a news story about a university professor who was working on a model of how airliner exhaust contributed to global shading. He had already set up a wide-area experiment to measure it, and in the days following 9/11 he collected the data. I don't have a link to that article, hopefully it is still online.

Imagine California with no traffic anywhere.

This ancillary routine of a worldwide 2 week break might become a good thing.....

We lost one this week..

 

Irving Berlin comes to mind.

Enjoy.

 

Edited March 22, 2020 by Moving On

Pretty sure the difference is being noticed in various places world wide. When there's a constant, 24/7/365 stream of junk of all sorts being spewed into the sky, on a global basis, it doesn't take long after a stop or major reduction, to actually see a difference. As noted, we did absolutely see that in only 3 days after the attacks of "9/11".

I've always believed the old masters, Adams/Weston, had much cleaner air to work with.

I haven't noticed it, but my daughter has and tells me that it has been noticed in China as well.

Interesting article at Weather Underground- Will the Global Response to the Coronavirus Give Climate a Nudge? | Weather Underground

I've always believed the old masters, Adams/Weston, had much cleaner air to work with.

Ansel Adams used to complain about contrails from jet engine aircraft. His term for contrails was "skyworms".

I was in the LA area in the 1970's, when a brown cloud often formed over downtown LA,

and then usually went north later in the day, with the usual wind direction.

 

With improvements in air quality, the easily seen brown cloud usually isn't

there, but I suspect that there is still some brownness.

 

For other large cities, and maybe not so large cities, less driving should mean

less smog.

Behind every silver lining there is a dark cloud.

No difference in the blueness of the sky here, but certainly a lot less cloud from lack of contrail 'seeding'.

 

Last time we had horizon-to-horizon blue sky was when the local airport was closed down for a previous emergency.

Not particularly related to what we are experiencing at the moment, but have any of you also ever noticed a difference in "blue sky" (and the quality of light in general) at (say) a city in the midwest US versus at a city much closer or along the Pacific or west coast? It's probably due to differences in particulate matter concentrations over water and land but one of my thoughts is from the light bouncing off the water and back into the sky versus bouncing off land and back into the sky; maybe why artists were drawn to locales southern France?

Here's yet another interesting map- earth :: a global map of wind, weather, and ocean conditions

 

You can set it up to show particulates and many other things, often seeing exactly where the source is. Water vapor is also interesting.

Not particularly related to what we are experiencing at the moment, but have any of you also ever noticed a difference in "blue sky" (and the quality of light in general) at (say) a city in the midwest US versus at a city much closer or along the Pacific or west coast? It's probably due to differences in particulate matter concentrations over water and land but one of my thoughts is from the light bouncing off the water and back into the sky versus bouncing off land and back into the sky; maybe why artists were drawn to locales southern France?

Yes. I live in San Francisco where the atmosphere often acts as a soft light box.

From a relative in the LA area, "What's the use of air if you can't see it?"

With all the many negative effects of of the COVOD19 virus on world health and economies, one of the side effects is that there's less industry and much less air travel. Both of which lead to less air pollution and clearer skies.

 

Mike

I was in the LA area in the 1970's, when a brown cloud often formed over downtown LA,

and then usually went north later in the day, with the usual wind direction.

 

With improvements in air quality, the easily seen brown cloud usually isn't

there, but I suspect that there is still some brownness.

 

For other large cities, and maybe not so large cities, less driving should mean

less smog.

Last winter in Los Angeles was actually the best for air quality since I can remember. I grew up out here, LA and Orange Counties, and I remember the smog we used to have back in the 60. After a day playing out doors, my lungs would actually hurt when I got home. AQMD has done wonders here, though we still get occasional hazy, smoggy days. The worse area is up in the Pasadena, and San Gabriel Valley where the smog ends up "Stacked" against the mountain, but the whole basin can get pretty hazy.

When I took my dog out for her midnight jobs, there was a rare moment of clear sky.

 

It was the sharpest sky I have ever seen down here at the bottom of the atmospheric well.

 

Also it was weird to hear no sound except an occasional non-human animal sound.

i once read the sky isn’t actually blue and only looks that way because of how the sun’s rays are reflected of the moon

Once, back in college in the 70s, the sky was yellow and pink. :eek:

They sky is blue due to Raleigh scattering of the sun's light by particles smaller than the wavelength of light, including dust and water. Molecules can scatter light, as long as they are polarized to some extent, which would include water. It is also polarized, centered on a band 90 degrees from the sun. Larger particles scatter light indiscriminately with respect to wavelength and polarization.

With all the many negative effects of of the COVOD19 virus on world health and economies, one of the side effects is that there's less industry and much less air travel. Both of which lead to less air pollution and clearer skies.

 

So apparently the good news is that the skies are more lovely over all the scenic natural wonders of the world but the bad news is that we can't travel to them with our camera gear in tow to capture it.

 

This leads to a philosophical conundrum: If the air and sky over the Grand Canyon are perfect but no one is permitted there to see or photograph it, is it really 'perfect'? Does it matter?

 

Clearly I have too much free time on my hands :(

So apparently the good news is that the skies are more lovely over all the scenic natural wonders of the world but the bad news is that we can't travel to them with our camera gear in tow to capture it.

And just to add to the bad news, people are also dying, suffering, and world economies may be collapsing, making the inability to photograph scenic wonders feel not quite so bad. Let’s just hope we all get out of this with all our abilities, our health, and our well being in tact.

 

In the meantime, I’ve been taking daily walks around my neighborhood and surroundings, with camera or without, staying six to ten feet away from anyone else who ventures out, noticing the sometimes surreal difference and the signs of emptiness and quiet, all under those clearer skies.

 

[Netflix also helps, if you can still afford it. Watch something like Free Solo, and you’ll see plenty of awesome, crisp, beautifully-shot blue-sky views of El Capitan with a great story to boot.]

Simplifies street photography.

Preset lens to 6’ , fire away.

Watch something like Free Solo

 

You must have been tracking my activity, I just started watching that two days ago (but watching that solo climbing set the butterflies in my stomach to churning).

 

you’ll see plenty of awesome, crisp, beautifully-shot blue-sky

 

Your adjectives negate the point of this thread. This film was made in the pre-COVID days when the Yosemite sky was full of jet plane exhaust, contrails and bay area pollution.