Like Jupiter Descended Onto the S. Oregon Coast: Bandon and Wildfire Smoke Science

Published 08/22/23 at 6:34 a.m.
By Oregon Coast Beach Connection staff

(Bandon, Oregon) – In mid August, the southern Oregon coast appeared to get a visit from an interstellar neighbor. Or it could've been a scene from Star Wars. (Photo Courtesy Manuela Durson Fine Arts )

As Bandon photog Manuela Durson was wandering the area and snapping pics, sunset became something new and different. With bands of clouds, thickened and colored with wildfire smoke from other areas, they positioned themselves in front of the lowering sun, along with the haze. Suddenly, it seemed as if Jupiter was hanging low in the Earth's sky.

A truly striking sunset was captured on the south Oregon coast. Beyond the unusual shapes and bands, that haze made for remarkable colors.

Not all the effect was pleasant, however. The gray haze was a bit spooky at times, although it too provided some unique coloration here and there.

Photo Courtesy Manuela Durson Fine Arts 

One shot in Durson's sequence shows the scene a step back: you can see the jetty. Another shows the outline of the Coquille River Lighthouse.

Photo Courtesy Manuela Durson Fine Arts 

On a different day, the smoke added some truly amazing colors to the clouds above the little south Oregon coast landmark. Sunset colors here become an entirely different and stark set of shades: bold and fierce incarnations of reds, pinks and oranges.

Photo Courtesy Manuela Durson Fine Arts 

At least back in the middle of the month, the smoke hadn't truly penetrated the south Oregon coast then.

“We actually can't smell the smoke, even though it is pretty smoky and hazy, which is surprising,” Durson said earlier this week. “As sad as wildfires are, they definitely make for interesting photos, because the atmosphere is just so eerie and intriguing. Have to take advantage of that.”

There are photographic challenges such conditions present to the photographer.

“Post processing can be an issue, have to be careful that one doesn't take too much of the smoke/haziness away by adding too much clarity, but have to add some contrast because there is hardly any,” she said.

2015 near Depoe Bay

It doesn't take nearby wildfires to affect sunsets on the Oregon coastline. For example, in 2015 they were a good continent or two away. There was a run of unusual pinkish haze and reddish sunsets on the Oregon coast. It turned out to be major fires burning in Russia at the time.

So why does wildfire smoke change colors like that?

In simplest terms, it blocks out the other lightbands – the other wavelengths, until you're left with the more red side of the scale.

Photo Courtesy Manuela Durson Fine Arts 

Yet how it does that is not unlike a whole host of other interesting weather and light phenomena, like the Green Flash at Sunset, rainbows or moon halos.

First, remember the sky is blue, which means there's a lot of blue wavelengths pouring down on us.

According to Scientific American:

“Where things get interesting, though, is when the smoke isn’t so dense. Some light gets through so that it interacts with more of the particles in the smoke. Light behaves as a wave, and when it hits particles, it refracts, or bends, around them. The specifics are very dependent on both the size of the particles and the light’s wavelength, but generally the smoke will bend blue light much more than red light. This scatters the blue light, sending it off in somewhat random directions.”

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Andre' GW Hagestedt is editor, owner and primary photographer / videographer of Oregon Coast Beach Connection, an online publication that sees over 1 million pageviews per month. He is also author of several books about the coast.

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