Bluest sky - guess where??

NZ ranks well in 'blue skies' research
03 August 2006 ?

New Zealand's Bay of Islands has the world's second-bluest sky, according to a Scots researcher who took measurements from 20 different sites on the Earth's surface during a 12 week round-the-world trip.

Anya Hohnbaum found Brazil's Rio de Janeiro had the bluest sky, followed by the Bay of Islands, Ayers Rock in Australia, Fiji and South Africa.

Cornwall, in England, came bottom in her list. Ms Hohnbaum, 27, a freelance television production co-ordinator from Glasgow, told that city's Evening News that every destination she visited took her breath away. She won the 12-week trip in an online competition entered by 3000 other people.

Ms Hohnbaum used a special portable spectrometer that was adapted for her by scientists at the UK's National Physical Laboratory.

The laboratory normally measures colours for applications such as judging the quality of beer, or variations in climate change seen in satellite pictures.

Physicist Nigel Fox, of the lab's optical-radiation group, packaged a robust spectrometer, a fibre optic cable to feed light into the device, and a tripod. All measurements were taken at 10am local time, after the device had been calibrated.

The data was analysed to show how much red, green and blue light was present, and the 'blueness' of the sky was calculated.

The blue sky league table is:

1. Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

2. Bay of Islands, NZ

3. Ayers Rock, Australia

4. Denarau Island, Fiji

5. Cape Town, South Africa

6. Antananarivo, Madagascar

7. Karumba, The Maldives

8. Tokyo, Japan

9. Castell Dinas Bran, Wales

10. Long Beach, LA, USA

11. St Lucia, Caribbean

12. Dublin, Ireland

13. Marrakech, Morocco

14. Juneau, Alaska

15. Phnom-Penh, Cambodia

16. Amalfi Coast, Italy

17. Koh Samui, Thailand

18. Edinburgh, Scotland

19. Giza, Egypt

20. Cornwall, England


Pack on the sun block!! 8-)

Yep, we had some of that beautiful blue today ... along with 18 degrees. More of it again tomorrow. 8-)

;D

No wonder I felt so at home in Cornwall - it was the overcast!