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AFTERGLOW
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AFTERGLOW, a broad high arch of. whitish or rosy light appearing occasionally in the sky above the highest clouds in the hour of deepening twilight, or reflected from the high snow-fields in mountain regions long after sunset: The phenomenon is due to very fine particles of dust suspended in the high regions of the atmosphere that produce a scattering effect upon the component parts of white light. After the eruption of Krakatoa in 1883, a remarkable series of red sunsets appeared all over the world. These were due to an enormous amount of exceedingly fine dust blown to a great height by that terrific explosion, and then universally diffused by the high atmospheric currents.