Posting an image of a calm sea, a sinking sun, a palm tree at a 90-ish degrees lean to the water, an imminent Green Flash in the offing - with your property digitally photographed in the foreground and duly uploaded to the appropriate website - could be considered as a dream shot for any real estate agents portfolio. The sea, the Sun, even the angled palm tree can be conjured up most anywhere in the Caribbean but El Rayo Verde? The Flasho Greeno? Now here's the tricky component in the mix. I have lived in the West Indies for 20 years and can truthfully say I've seen no more than nine meaningful sunrise or sunset Green Flashes in that time “ probably because I've not been looking that hard; out there I mean. Usually it's the wrong time, right place and vice versa. But unabashed, I thought it prudent and curious to investigate the phenomenon a little further.

Evidently, as most tuned in school-kids can attest to, the Green Flash is enmeshed in a refraction of light - aka as a prism - in the atmosphere: light, presumably, moves more slowly through the lower, denser air than through the thinner air above, so sunlight rays follow paths that curve slightly in the same direction as the curvature of the Earth “ still with me? Higher frequency light “ green and blue "curves more than lower frequency light " red and orange "so green and blue rays from the setting Suns upper limbs remain visible after the red rays are obstructed by the curvature of the Earth. I'm told a Green Flash is more likely to be seen in clear air, when more of the light of the setting Sun reaches the observer without being scattered.

Having said that - from my experience - what lays immediately above that far off imaginary horizon line, such as thin banded cloud, even pinkish wisps, can lessen the green hue effect greatly; even to a zilch amount, leaving our picture-less avid photo buff with a 24 hour layover to the next dusky event. And with the miniscule amount of time available to capture the picture, it's wise to set your duty free mega pixel camera to a continuous advance setting that can take about 15 frames in rapid succession, covering the whole scenario, thereby ensuring that your wait has not been in vain.

As a gentle conclusion, the notion that a Green Flash denotes a human soul returning to Earth is an interesting digestion for you alone suffice to say may your God go with you.