It could be black carbon from incomplete coal combustion .

It is unfortunate that a satellite monitoring aerosol emissions and their particle-size distribution was never built. We could have had a better understanding of their behaviour. I suspect that these very fine particles reflect heat back to the ground.

(2) All I saw yesterday was a dusty gray-red. AFAIK there were no recent volcanic eruptions which released sulfur dioxide aerosols. I suspect that the increased optical depth is the result of sub-micron sized aerosol particles from fossil fuels that stay aloft for years if not decades.

I couldn’t believe how much darker the moon looked during totality than in the seventies when the atmosphere was more transparent: back then it looked bright orange from all the world’s sunsets hitting the moon surface. Total lunar eclipses have been progressively getting darker over the years.

@michaelemann.bsky.social hi Mike my handle is @denyqc.bsky.social