NASASpaceNews | Why China Had a Blood Red Sky? (2022)

While internet users speculated about China's red sky, wondering if it was caused by a solar storm that generated a crimson sky above China, Korea, and Japan in 1770, local officials informed locals that this phenomenon had nothing to do with solar activity.

According to local sources, the red colour of the sky was caused by the reflection of red light from a fishing boat catching Pacific saury.

A Global Times report quoted the Zhoushan Meteorological Bureau who explained, “It was foggy and cloudy in Zhoushan on Saturday and it was drizzling at the time of the red sky, which might have been caused by the reflection of light from the low-level clouds.”

Experts from the space physics research team of the China University of Geosciences in Wuhan noted that the crimson sky was not caused by any anomalies of solar activity as the solar and geomagnetic activity was calm.

In fact, China has not witnessed a blood-red sky for the first time. According to LiveScience, the sky across China, Japan, and Korea became crimson on September 10, 1770, and the hue lingered for over a week.

Several studies have been conducted on this historic occurrence in an attempt to determine what caused it. Hisashi Hayakawa, a historian and astronomer at Japan's Osaka University, and his colleagues investigated mentions of aurora in historical sources from Japan, Korea, and other East Asian nations.

Hayakawa remarked that the long-lasting auroras were visible at low altitudes, adding that one of the causes may be a significant geomagnetic storm, according to LiveScience.

Hayakawa further explained, “Considering this event was so large, it would be reasonable to find more events not only in East Asia but also in other low-latitude areas,” Hayakawa said. As a result, the team is extending its archival surveys to areas as distant as the Middle East.”