It’s not often scientists make oil paintings a subject of their inquiry, but that is what researchers from Greece and Germany have done in an attempt to understand air pollution through the ages.
Scientists know that colorful red sunsets are usually the result of pollution – particulates scatter the sun’s rays, resulting in deep reddish hues. While these sunsets may be visually stunning, they are not usually a good sign for the atmosphere.
So, researchers decided to look at depictions of sunsets painted by European artists between 1500 and 2000. Their findings were interesting – during the time period studied, there were more than 50 large volcanic eruptions worldwide. Researchers found that those eruptions strongly coincided with an increase in the redness of painted sunsets.
Furthermore, the redness of sunsets in the paintings studied has increased overall since the Industrial Revolution, regardless of volcanic eruptions. Scientists suggest that artists, attempting to capture the ethereal beauty of a sunset, have also been inadvertently capturing the increased air pollution of the modern era.
This research may give us insight into air quality levels in the past, before such measures and data were available. The researchers particularly hope artistic depictions can provide estimates of aerosols in the atmosphere hundreds of years ago, supplementing the historical records of aerosols in layers of the Greenland and Antarctic ice packs.
While oil paintings are obviously imperfect as scientific data, they may provide interesting insight into patterns of climate change and pollution levels through history.
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Hidden in Old Paintings, A Clue to Past Climate
Image, posted June 30, 2009, courtesy of Lina Smith via Flickr.
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Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio. Support for Earth Wise comes from the Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies in Millbrook, NY.