Friday 13 January 2012

MELBOURNE SUNSET


Air pollution is a problem that no major city in the world has avoided. Air pollution from industry, from the large numbers of homes clustered together in and around the cities and the widespread use of motor vehicles means that the quality of the air in cities suffers. Although the most obvious large emissions from factory chimneys have been eliminated – there are still lots of smaller amounts of polluting emissions from a broad range of large and small industries which contribute to Melbourne’s air pollution.
In Melbourne and other Victorian cities and towns, we are lucky. Air quality is good most of the time, thanks to low population density, favourable climate and tight regulations (see graphs below). The main air pollutants of concern for Victoria are ozone (in summer) and very small particles (mostly in winter) that we can breathe in. Unlike many of the developed countries in the world, acid rain is not a problem for us.


When the air quality is relatively bad with many fine particles suspended in the atmosphere, one thing that occurs is a range of colourful sunsets because of the light diffraction.


This post is part of the Skywatch Friday meme.









27 comments:

  1. Breathtaking capture of your gorgeous, colorful skies, Nick! Superb! And you are fortunate to have less air pollution in Melbourne than so many other parts of the world! I hope it continues! Terrific and very interesting post for the day! Have a great weekend!

    Sylvia

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  2. O such a brilliant gathering of cloud colours! They almost look as if they are on the march across the sky! And their shape seems to give the sky a "low feeling"!

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  3. WOW, - I like it! The sky is burning!
    I wish you a Happy Friday!

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  4. Gorgeous! Almost makes it worth the pollution. Not quite, but almost.

    -----------------------------------
    My photography is available for purchase - visit Around the Island Photography on etsy and Society6 and bring home something beautiful today!

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  5. It's so beautiful, it almost makes you forget it's caused by pollution!

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  6. A dynamic sunset, beautifully captured! Have a great weekend!

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  7. So much drama and beauty in that shot. Air pollution is a serious problem and your post was interesting.

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  8. That is a lovely shot. When I start driving to work, the city is about 1,500 feet (550 meters) below me, and occasionally I can see the layer of smog. But most of the time the air is pretty clear here as the wind blows the clean mountain air over the city.

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  9. A real spekky capture Nick - good to see Melbourne rated so well in the

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  10. The sentence was supposed to read - good to see Melbourne rated so well in the air pollution graph.
    It's this new iPad - very tempramental !!

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  11. Now that is a beautiful sky!

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  12. fantastic...the color, the texture...gorgeous!

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  13. Wow! The clouds are heralding the glorious colors of the skies!

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  14. Now I wonder how much air pollution we have where I live. My family blame the air pollution for every little cough I have. They live out in the country side and I move to the city some 20 years ago. This post gave me something to think about. I like the photos too. =)

    Have a nice weekend! =)

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  15. Wow! This sunset shot is a real beauty.

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  16. What a great shot and what a beautiful view and colors!
    Happy SWF greetings from Holland,
    Anna :-))

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  17. such a gorgeous sky. it's great to know that the air quality is good most of the time in Melbourne. great post.

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  18. What a beautiful photo of sunset! Have a nice weekend with clean air.

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  19. Gorgeous sunset Nick!
    I have found the sunsets to be so beautiful this summer in Brisbane.

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  20. I hate when people disillusion me about my sunsets ;>)....(I do know about the smog -- when we lived in Oregon, they were always the most beautiful when the grass seed farmers were burning their fields...not nice...but the smog did create beautiful red sunsets.)

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  21. Amazing sky Nick, and i was glad to see Perth wasn't mentioned anywhere on those graphs! Have a good weekend.

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  22. This is a wonderful shot, great colors and awesome clouds.

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  23. Read very striking fact about air pollution here. And informative graphs.
    The photo is very beautiful : )

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