Mohave County miner., 1916-11-11
SEES SHADOWS OF MOUNTAINS IN SKY
 NEAR TIA JUANA

Dean A. E. Douglas of the Univer. sity of Arizona comes forward with
 observations made by himself that are
 not only of great importance to the
 scientific world, but of great interest
 to the world at large. Dr. Douglas
 stated recently that he had seen the
 shadows of mountains or clouds in the
 sky in the vicinity of Tia Juana, Mex
 ico. This is very rare, due to the cur
 vature of the earth, for the location of
 these clouds is between 300 and 400
 miles away. He states the cause of
 this to be the reflection of the clouds
 in the layer of dust that has been
 hanging over Lower California and
 Mexico at an altitude of 15 miles dur
 ing the summer.
 pr. Douglas said: "While in Cali
 fornia this summer I visited Mt. Will
 son observatory, and while there I had
 a long talk with Professor Abbott, the
 greatest authority on the radiation of
 the sun. During this conversation
 Professor Abbott stated that he had
 been troubled in his observations be- i cause of haze in the upper atmos-
 phere which he thought possibly was a
 layer of dust. I then talked with a
 noted meterologist, whose name I am
 not at liberty to give, who said, "The
 summer has been the coldest known in the history of California, and I think
 that it is due to the dust layer that
 has cut off the rays of the sun, allow ing an unusual precipitation of fog. I have travelled on the north coast this summer, and in Oregon and Washing ton cannot find trace of the dust layer that was prevalent in the south, where, in addition to abnormal tenn peratures, there were highly colored sunsets, with long continued after glow, ending in brilliant crimson il- lumination along the horizon. The layers of dust might be due to the eruption of Mt. Lassen, for it seemed to be over California than on the north part of the coast. Volcanoes have been known to send dust to high levels and produce sunsets, also to decrease the temperature as was the case after the eruption of Katmai in Alaska in 1912" Mir. Douglas continued: Hast week noticed a series of brilliant rays of high color in the western sky converging toward where the sun had disappeared. The next night I mo- ticed the same phenomena and I req ized that the sun had been set for 30 | minutes. Realizing this, recognized i that these rays were not the shadows of clouds as is common in sunsets, as there were no clouds visible. In this latitude, when the sun has set for 30 | minutes, it would be just setting near San Diego. then awoke to the fact that these rays were reflections from mountains and clouds southeast of San Diego from the vicinity of Tia Juana. My reason for knowing this was be- cause of the length of time that had passed, mal1ing-in this latitude-a distance of $50 to 45O miles. What were the shadows cast on? Taking into consideration my conversation with California scientists, I calculated that the rays were cast on the layer of dust at an altitude of 15 miles. I continued my observations the next night, attempting to photograph the phenomena, but was unsuccessful, though I did notice a pink region above the layer of dust, which might have been finer dust.
 The following two nights the sky was cloudy and after that the rays had disappeared. The cause of the may be the decrease of the dust layer or possibly the disap- pearance of the masses of clouds from which the reflection came. After the eruption of Krakatoa in the East h. ] dies, in 1883, the name of afterglow ; was given to a certain frightening of i the sky when the sun got into the : right relative position. I noticed this l the second night of my observation, 20 minutes after the sun had set. This ' phenomena may recur I again, but it is extremely unusual to ' see an actual layer of dust at such an i height, and this, combined Y with it's brilliancy, makes it of the C greatest interest, rarity and beauty. |
 q have written Professor Abbott of 2 my observations, but I would like in