* The author is part of the community of readers of La Vanguardia
Haze, fog and solar pillar at dawn this Monday on the Mediterranean coast of Fuengirola, as shown in this series of snapshots in Las Fotos de los Lectores de La Vanguardia.
The haze is a meteorological phenomenon that occurs in the presence of Saharan dust in the atmosphere.
For its part, a pillar of sunlight is one of the most attractive elements of dawn. It is an atmospheric optical phenomenon in which a vertical beam of light appears to extend above and/or below a light source.
The effect is created by the reflection of light from small ice crystals that are suspended in the atmosphere or comprise high-altitude clouds (for example, cirrostratus or cirrus clouds).
If the light comes from the sun (usually when it is near or even below the horizon), the phenomenon is called a solar pillar, as in this case in Fuengirola.
In these last two photographs we can even see some sunspots and the sun somewhat deformed, two other interesting phenomena to observe at dawn.
A sunspot is a region of the sun that has a lower temperature than its surroundings and with intense magnetic activity. It consists of a dark central region, called the "umbra," surrounded by a lighter "penumbra."
A single spot can measure up to 12,000 km (almost as large as the diameter of the Earth), but a group of spots can reach 120,000 km in size or more.
As regards the deformation of the sun, the rays undergo a deflection when passing through the earth's atmosphere. This is an optical phenomenon known as "refraction" and the angle that light is bent after passing through the Earth's atmosphere is known as the "angle of refraction".
Refraction is the change in direction and speed that a wave experiences when passing from one medium to another with a different refractive index.
It is also very well observed with respect to the sun when, for example, the so-called Omega effect occurs.
