Scientists are taking cues from painters:
Greek and German researchers have compiled the results of looking at sunsets in 310 works from the Tate and National Gallery in London. The art dates from 1500 to 2000 and covers some 50 volcanic explosions and the stunning skies in their aftermath. The focus is on sunsets because, as atmospheric refractions beaming light through the Earth’s atmosphere in a way we usually can’t see, they can potentially show what the climate was like in the past and help improve climate change models for the future. Called ”Further evidence of important environmental information content in red-to-green ratios as depicted in paintings by great masters,” the study follows and confirms findings from the team’s 2007 exploration of paintings by such artists as Rembrandt, Hogarth, and Rubens. The current study is heavy on J. M. W. Turner, who was drawn to the sunsets just after the [1815 Mount] Tambora eruption.
Becky Oskin provides more details:
By measuring the amount of red and green in the paintings, the researchers were able to figure out past aerosol pollution levels. More aerosols meant redder sunsets, because the tiny particles are small compared to the wavelength of visible light, More long wavelength red light makes it through the aerosols, and shorter wavelength blues and violets get scattered by the aerosol particles. “Regardless of the school and style, all painters provided quite accurate aerosol information when red/green ratios were examined,” lead study author Christos Zerefos, a professor of atmospheric physics at the Academy of Athens in Greece, said in an email interview.
Update from a reader:
In a similar vein, “Vanishing Ice: Alpine and Polar Landscapes in Art, 1775-2012” just ended it’s first exhibition at the local art museum in Bellingham, WA. Admittedly, it scrimped as small museums must by using occasionally using reproductions in place of originals, but the themes and messages were all quite original and powerful. Explore the meaning of ice in our world, in its many forms, and witness the changing ice patterns in “before and after” type comparisons of paintings, prints, sketches and photographs. Lots of other great media reviews on the exhibition website.
At the start of the exhibit in November 2013, the museum commissioned an installation in the museum courtyard. Called “Melting Ice” by Jyoti Duwadi in collaboration with Bellingham Cold Storage. From this YouTube video: “The sculpture was assembled with blocks of ice from the company’s old ice house and left to melt. A variety of fossils, some dating to the Ice Age, was embedded in the cube and revealed during the melting process. Fossils are time capsules into the earth’s natural history. Students from Bellingham schools participated in various educational activities related to the artwork. The process of creating this installation and the ice melting was captured on tape.”
The exhibition website is here. A complete video tour of the exhibit is here (damn the internet is cool).
(Image of Chichester Canal by J. M. W. Turner, 1828, via Wikimedia Commons)
The Dish 
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