Later the green appeared for shorter and less frequent intervals, and the orange and red flares increased in frequency. This is a far cry from Richard Byrd, on one of his expeditions to the south pole, saw the green flash for an amazing 35 minutes, as the rising sun slid across the horizon at the end of the long, dark winter. I complained to them about this the day before, when they asked to use my GF photograph, and was told Unfortunately, we are not able to correct the show at this point in time. We have considered changing the text for airing on the website tomorrow, but that would conflict with the pre-recorded audio. Now you see why scientists don't trust journalists.
Many people think the flash has something to do with a long air path.
One often sees remarks to the effect that it's caused by the large amount of air you have to look through at the horizon. It's hard to see where this idea came from. Unfortunately, in polluted urban air, the long air path often removes the green as well, so that the flash is an unspectacular yellow. Actually, in the inferior-mirage flash, the path length through which the flash is seen is somewhat less than the path at the horizon in the Standard Atmosphere . What should be emphasized here is the peculiar refraction, rather than the mere length of the air path.