Researchers Explain The Cause Of The Greenish Color Phenomenon At Night In The Menoreh Sky

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JAKARTA - Climatology researcher from the Research Center for Atmospheric Science and Technology, the National Research and Innovation Agency (BRIN), Erma Yulihastin explained the cause of the phenomenon that occurred in the sky in the Menoreh hills in Central Java.

According to him, the green glow in Menoreh's sky appears due to atmospheric gravity waves.

"The glowing sky is characterized by a greenish color in the sky at night that occurs due to the presence of atmospheric gravitational waves," said Erma, quoted by Antara, Monday, October 4.

Erma explained, atmospheric gravitational waves are gravitational waves in the atmosphere on a planetary scale that can be formed due to a disturbance in the atmosphere at a certain location so that it disrupts the layers in the atmosphere, starting from the surface to the highest layer in the atmosphere such as the mesosphere.

According to him, disturbances in the surface atmosphere or troposphere layer that can generate atmospheric gravity waves are convective activities that produce high convection clouds.

In addition, Erma suggested a possible link between the appearance of a green glow in Menoreh's sky with meso-scale storm activity that disrupted the layers in the atmosphere to form atmospheric gravitational waves (GGA).

Observations on data from the BRIN Satellite-Based Disaster Early Warning System (SADEWA) show that a strong and widespread meso-scale storm formed over the ocean about 200 kilometers from the location, namely in the Karimata Strait, west of Kalimantan.

The meso-scale storm moves like a pendulum all day long, forming in Sumatra in the morning and then heading east towards Kalimantan and crossing the South China Sea until the afternoon.

At night, the storm moves back from Borneo to the sea and stays there until midnight.

"Meso-scale storm activity that moves back and forth like a pendulum may have become a disturbance for the layers in the atmosphere so that a very strong GGA is formed and its appearance can be seen at a location in Central Java," said Erma.

He suggested that the results of observing images of the glowing sky should be able to be collected from various directions or angles to form a complete glowing sky image as reported by Smith and colleagues in 2020 in Argentina.

A scientific report related to the celestial glow in Argentina was published by the American Geophysical Union in the Journal of the Geophysical Research Atmosphere on November 16, 2020.

According to the report, a glowing sky phenomenon that can be seen by the naked eye occurred in Argentina, South America, on March 17, 2020.

The report says the atmospheric gravitational waves that appear green in color are associated with meso-scale storm activity that occurs about 100 kilometers from where the glowing sky can be seen with the naked eye.