"This sulfur-spewing Russian volcano is turning sunsets purple" (and climate and art do a mashup)

The climate and optical effects of explosive eruptions can be dramatic and world-wide. More after the jump.
From the journal Science, September 13, 2019:

NASA

Sunrise and sunset chasers discovered something odd this summer: In rural Colorado and the rest of the Northern Hemisphere, Earth’s daily light shows were turning purple. Now, weather balloons probing the stratosphere have traced the mysterious purple light to a volcanic eruption in Russia.

On 22 June, Russia’s Raikoke volcano blasted ash and sulfuric gas 17 kilometers into the stratosphere. Eruptions that violent are rare—the last to spew gases that high was in 1991, when Mount Pinatubo in the Philippines blew its top. Researchers monitoring the stratosphere with high-altitude balloons soon found a layer of sulfur particles 20 times thicker than normal. This was enough to explain the purple sunsets and sunrises and to pin them on the Raikoke eruption, they report this week.

When the sun rises or sets, its rays strike the atmosphere at an angle—forcing the light to travel farther and filter through more particles known as aerosols. Those aerosols, including the high-flying sulfur particles, act like disco balls—scattering the light in all directions. If a volcanic eruption launches enough sulfur into the stratosphere, this scattering of light can cause the entire planet to cool temporarily by diverting more sunlight into space....MORE

This is the reason I got excited about another Siberian volcano in August 27's "Huge if True: 'Super eruption of Shiveluch volcano in Kamchatka...'". From the outro:
The story says this may be a weather changer but that's not quite true. We've touched on how important:

a) the height of the sulfate injection is 
b) which is a function of the explosivity (measured by the VEI: Volcanic Explosivity Index)
b) the latitude of the eruption...

And why I had mixed emotions seven hours later when posting "Update: Shiveluch Volcano: "NO Major Eruption on 25 Aug, Ash Plume only to 23,000 and not 70,000 ft".

And why "mixed," curious yet wary reader may be asking?
When Mount Pinatubo blew in 1991 it ejected ash and aerosols 22 miles (35 kilometers) into the air.
The aerosols had a cooling effect of about 1°F (0.5°C) which lasted almost two years.

And the other effect, noted in the Science article above and which has been captured by painters for at least a couple centuries, is the change of color of the sky
We highlighted one contested example in a post from 2010 (contested because Krakatoa erupted in 1883, ten years before Munch painted this version of the painting):

Hmmm... Krakatoa's Baby May be Getting Ready to Erupt
From Sky & Telescope

...A new analysis of Edvard Munch's The Scream provides the precise location where Munch and his friends were walking when he saw the blood-red sky depicted in the 1893 painting, as well as an explanation of why the sky appeared to be on fire. Through Munch's journals, topographic analysis, and a connection to the eruption of Krakatoa, proof now exists that the spectacular twilight seen in one of today's most recognizable paintings was inspired by this dramatic event.

National Museum 

(http://samling.nasjonalmuseet.no/en/object/NG.M.00939) 

via Wikipedia

In "When The Sky Ran Red: The Story Behind The Scream," in the February 2004 issue of Sky & Telescope magazine, Donald W. Olson, a physics and astronomy professor at Texas State University, and his colleagues Russell L. Doescher and Marilynn S. Olson reveal how they journeyed to Oslo, Norway, to pinpoint the exact location where Munch stood when he "felt a great, unending scream piercing through nature," inspiring him to put his emotions on canvas. They determined that Munch and his friends were walking along a road once called Ljabrochausséen, which is now a modern roadway called Mosseveien. It was along the railing of Ljabrochausséen that Munch became overwhelmed with emotion. Olson and his team located a rocky hillside overlook that precisely matches the artist's vista of Christiania (now Oslo) harbor and Hovedø island....MORE  

And from the outro of that long ago post:

While Sky & Telescope focused on The Scream, the effect can be seen in other art of the decade following the eruption including some Impressionist masterpieces.
***
A similar size eruption in 1815 is believed to have influenced the color choices of J.M.W. Turner:


Source: Guardian Unlimited

You can see more of the effect in the Tate Museum's online Turner collection "Skies Sketchbook [Finberg CLVIII]"