Sunrise (orsunup) is the moment when the upper rim of theSun appears on thehorizon in themorning,[1] at the start of theSun path. The term can also refer to the entire process of the solar disk crossing the horizon.
Although the Sun appears to "rise" from the horizon, it is actually theEarth's motion that causes the Sun to appear. The illusion of a moving Sun results from Earth observers being in arotating reference frame; this apparent motion caused many cultures to have mythologies and religions built around thegeocentric model, which prevailed until astronomerNicolaus Copernicus formulated hisheliocentric model in the 16th century.[2]
ArchitectBuckminster Fuller proposed the terms "sunsight" and "sunclipse" to better represent the heliocentric model, though the terms have not entered into common language.[3][4]
Astronomically, sunrise occurs for only an instant, namely the moment at which the upper limb of the Sun appears tangent to the horizon.[1] However, the termsunrise commonly refers to periods of time both before and after this point:
Towers of the Church of theAssumption in Bielany-Kraków over the Wolski Forest just after sunrise.
Twilight, the period in the morning during which the sky isbrightening, but the Sun is not yet visible. The beginning of morning twilight is calledastronomicaldawn.
The period after the Sun rises during which striking colors and atmospheric effects are still seen.[5] Civil twilight being the brightest, while astronomical twilight being the darkest.
The stage of sunrise known asfalse sunrise actually occursbefore the Sun truly reaches the horizon becauseEarth's atmosphere refracts the Sun's image. At the horizon, the average amount ofrefraction is 34arcminutes, though this amount varies based on atmospheric conditions.[1]
Also, unlike most other solar measurements, sunrise occurs when the Sun'supper limb, rather than its center, appears to cross the horizon. The apparent radius of the Sun at the horizon is 16 arcminutes.[1]
These two angles combine to define sunrise to occur when the Sun's center is 50 arcminutes below the horizon, or 90.83° from thezenith.[1]
Time of sunrise in 2008 forLibreville,Gabon. Near the equator, the variation of the time of sunrise is mainly governed by the variation of theequation of time. Seehere for the sunrise chart of a different location.
In late winter and spring, sunrise as seen from temperate latitudes occurs earlier each day, reaching its earliest time shortly before thesummer solstice; although the exact date varies by latitude. After this point, the time of sunrise gets later each day, reaching its latest shortly after thewinter solstice, also varying by latitude. The offset between the dates of the solstice and the earliest or latest sunrise time is caused by the eccentricity of Earth's orbit and the tilt of its axis, and is described by the analemma, which can be used to predict the dates.
Variations in atmospheric refraction can alter the time of sunrise by changing its apparent position. Near the poles, the time-of-day variation is extreme, since the Sun crosses the horizon at a very shallow angle and thus rises more slowly.[1]
Accounting for atmospheric refraction and measuring from the leading edge slightly increases the average duration ofday relative tonight. Thesunrise equation, however, which is used to derive the time of sunrise and sunset, uses the Sun's physical center for calculation, neglecting atmospheric refraction and the non-zero angle subtended by the solar disc.
Timelapse video of twilight and sunrise inGjøvik, Norway in February 2021
Neglecting the effects of refraction and the Sun's non-zero size, whenever sunrise occurs, in temperate regions it is always in the northeast quadrant from theMarch equinox to theSeptember equinox and in the southeast quadrant from the September equinox to the March equinox.[6] Sunrises occur approximately due east on the March and September equinoxes for all viewers on Earth.[7] Exact calculations of theazimuths of sunrise on other dates are complex, but they can be estimated with reasonable accuracy by using theanalemma.
The figure on the right is calculated using the solar geometry routine in Ref.[8] as follows:
For a given latitude and a given date, calculate the declination of the Sun using longitude andsolar noon time as inputs to the routine;
An interesting feature in the figure on the right is apparent hemispheric symmetry in regions where daily sunrise and sunset actually occur.
This symmetry becomes clear if the hemispheric relation in to thesunrise equation is applied to the x- and y-components of the solar vector presented in Ref.[8]
As a ray of white sunlight travels through the atmosphere to an observer, some of the colors are scattered out of the beam by air molecules andairborne particles, changing the final color of the beam the viewer sees. Because the shorter wavelength components, such as blue and green, scatter more strongly, these colors are preferentially removed from the beam.[9]
At sunrise and sunset, when the path through the atmosphere is longer, the blue and green components are removed almost completely, leaving the longer-wavelength orange and redhues seen at those times. The remaining reddened sunlight can then be scattered by cloud droplets and other relatively large particles to light up the horizon red and orange.[10] The removal of the shorter wavelengths of light is due to Rayleigh scattering by air molecules and particles much smaller than the wavelength of visible light (less than 50 nm in diameter).[11][12] The scattering by cloud droplets and other particles with diameters comparable to or larger than the sunlight's wavelengths (more than 600 nm) is due to Mie scattering and is not strongly wavelength-dependent. Mie scattering is responsible for the light scattered by clouds, and also for the daytimehalo of white light around the Sun (forward scattering of white light).[13][14][15]
Sunset colors are typically more brilliant than sunrise colors, because the evening air contains more particles than morning air.[9][10][12][15] Ash fromvolcanic eruptions, trapped within thetroposphere, tends to mute sunset and sunrise colors, while volcanic ejecta that is instead lofted into thestratosphere (as thin clouds of tinysulfuric acid droplets), can yield beautiful post-sunset colors calledafterglows and pre-sunrise glows. A number of eruptions, including those ofMount Pinatubo in 1991 andKrakatoa in 1883, have produced sufficiently high stratospheric sulfuric acid clouds to yield remarkable sunset afterglows (and pre-sunrise glows) around the world. The high altitude clouds serve to reflect strongly reddened sunlight still striking the stratosphere after sunset, down to the surface.
Light from the lower edge of the Sun's disk is refracted more than light from the upper edge. This reduces the apparent height of the Sun when it appears just above the horizon. The width is not affected, so the Sun appears wider than it is high.
The Sun appears larger at sunrise than it does while higher in the sky, in a manner similar to theMoon illusion.
The Sun appears to rise above the horizon and circle the Earth, but it is actually the Earth that is rotating, with the Sun remaining fixed. This effect results from the fact that an observer on Earth is in arotating reference frame.
Occasionally afalse sunrise occurs, demonstrating a very particular kind ofparhelion belonging to the optical phenomenon family ofhalos.
Sometimes just before sunrise or after sunset, agreen flash can be seen. This is an optical phenomenon in which a green spot is visible above the Sun, usually for no more than a second or two.[16]
^abZhang, T., Stackhouse, P.W., Macpherson, B., and Mikovitz, J.C., 2021. A solar azimuth formula that renders circumstantial treatment unnecessary without compromising mathematical rigor: Mathematical setup, application and extension of a formula based on the subsolar point and atan2 function.Renewable Energy, 172, 1333-1340. DOI:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.renene.2021.03.047
