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Diagram showing displacement of the Sun's image at sunrise and sunset Comparison of inferior and superior mirages due to differing air refractive indices, n. Atmospheric refraction is the deviation of light or other electromagnetic wave from a straight line as it passes through the atmosphere due to the variation in air density as a function of height. [1]
Red, orange and pink clouds occur almost entirely at sunrise and sunset and are the result of the scattering of sunlight by the atmosphere. When the angle between the Sun and the horizon is less than 10 percent, as it is just after sunrise or just prior to sunset, sunlight becomes too red due to refraction for any colors other than those with a ...
The time of actual sunset is defined in astronomy as two minutes before the upper limb of the Sun disappears below the horizon. [1] Near the horizon, atmospheric refraction causes sunlight rays to be distorted to such an extent that geometrically the solar disk is already about one diameter below the horizon when a sunset is observed.
Earth's atmosphere. A Terrestrial Atmospheric Lens is a theoretical method of using the Earth as a large lens with a physical effect called atmospheric refraction. [1]The sun's image appears about a half degree above its real position during sunset due to Earth's atmospheric refraction.
Light from the Sun is bent, or refracted, as it enters Earth's atmosphere. This effect causes the apparent sunrise to be earlier than the actual sunrise. Similarly, apparent sunset occurs slightly later than actual sunset. In ordinary atmospheric conditions, the setting or rising Sun appears to be about half a degree above its geometric position.
While simple atmospheric refraction or lensing explains the background gradient of red-amber twilight, the primary potential cause of the bright, verdant discontinuity from that gradient known as the Green Flash may be due to naturally-occurring coherent (laser) light.
Accounting for atmospheric refraction and measuring from the leading edge slightly increases the average duration of day relative to night. The sunrise 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 ...
Rayleigh scattering of sunlight in Earth's atmosphere causes diffuse sky radiation, which is the reason for the blue color of the daytime and twilight sky, as well as the yellowish to reddish hue of the low Sun. Sunlight is also subject to Raman scattering, which changes the rotational state of the molecules and gives rise to polarization ...