Has anyone else observed sunrises to appear less red than sunsets? The angle on the horizon is the same, 0°. Could it be the eyes are adjusted to red em radiation after being in the dark of night? At most, the difference in movement towards the sunrise and away from the sunset is 2,000 mph, from the rotation of the earth. This is not fast enough to have any observable Redshift.
It isn't so much a red shift as it is a prism-like effect. Light has to travel through more atmosphere which causes a scattering effect. At night you also have cooling temps causing condensation in the atmosphere which makes the air a bit denser per se and you get a greater degree of scatter towards the lower end of the spectrum. Generalized concept at any rate.
Gnice, the heating of the surface of the Earth has got to be it. The condensation would clear the air of water vapor, leaving clouds and dry air, through which the blue light of the sunrise can pass. Whereas the blue sunset light gets bent down can from the sky over head of someone else, reaching them instead of the observer.
I could find surprisingly a little information about this on the Internet.
I used to sail quite a bit... occasionally there IS a very red sunrise... when those occur, best be pullin in the sheet and grippin the tiller tight for a storm is not far under the horizon.
I used to sail quite a bit... occasionally there IS a very red sunrise... when those occur, best be pullin in the sheet and grippin the tiller tight for a storm is not far under the horizon.
"Red sky at morning, sailor take warning. Red sky at night, sailor's delight"
I think there are many different factors relating to why sunsets appear red more than sunrises.
Such personal perceptions vary person to person a bit due to unique eye condition, height, duration, direction, composition of the atmosphere you are viewing thru and a great number of other slight variances.
Lest we not forget redshift.
Light moving away or slower, shifts to the red end of our spectrum.
Light moving towards or faster, shifts toward our blue end of the spectrum.
The Earth is moving and we are moving with it.
Mostly though, it has to do with angle of view and density of atmosphere.
An interesting analysis could be to see if red sunrises are more prevalent during the fall months than the spring months. Likewise, winter vs summer.
I fear the data would be insignificant due to other variables unless it was a long duration study over centuries. Which would cause a whole different set of variables in the results.
Sunsets are overrated.
I haven't missed a sunrise,
in many years.
Overnight wind usually blows the low air pollution load away, and you have a cleaner atmosphere when the sun rises.
Sunsets are tinted by the whole day's pollution, through the thickness of low angle of sun through atmosphere.
Not just local pollution, but higher up far away as well, including interstate and close overseas pollution.
more pollution in the evenings so diffusing the light. the actual sun has set as soon as the disk has touched the horizon. Due to light being bent through more atmosphere at that level. similar to twinkling stars. stars high up tend not to twinkle. Stars lower down do due to diffraction and thermal affects.
