“What is sunrise time?” is one of the general questions that you can find on open forums, e.g., Quora. Well, it’s actually a very simple question, but it turns out that many people want to know about its true meaning and also wonder about the process.
On Quora, you’ll find many answers both based on scientific evidence and people’s opinions. Well, it’s normal if you get a little confused about the exact answer since sunrise will take place in different places at different times due to some factors, including the height of the land and the weather.
Even though you can find lots of answers regarding what the sunrise time means on Quora, we’ve summarized them in this post, so you can easily find the best answer here. Okay, let’s check it out below!
What Does Sunrise Time Mean? Here’s the Best Answer!
Regarding the question of whether sunrise time means when it begins to turn light outside or when it is already kind of light and the sun just finished coming up over the horizon, both are neither and refer to different terms, not the meaning of sunrise.
- When the sun begins to turn the earliest light outside but the sun is just below the horizon, we can call it “dawn.”
- When the sun just finishes coming up over the horizon, scientists call it “daylight.”
That’s why both statements do not refer to the meaning of sunrise. So, what exactly is sunrise time?
Scientifically, sunrise time is the moment when the first part of the sun’s disk appears on the horizon in the morning and most of the sun is below the horizon, according to Wikipedia. Sunrise is also defined as the time of morning in ideal meteorological conditions due to standard refraction of sunlight, when the upper edge of the sun’s disk coincides with the ideal horizon. So, it can also refer to the entire process of the solar disk crossing the horizon.
In general, sunrise time means the time around sunrise, and it will vary depending on the location, time zone, and altitude. Usually, the sunrise takes place in around 20 minutes. But now, you can check it using online calculators or tables to know the exact sunrise time for your area.
The Sunrise Time Varies: Does the Sun Always Rise in the East?
When it comes to whether the sun will always rise in the east and set in the west, it doesn’t at all. Even though many people really know that the sun rises in the east, they do not realize that is a generalization.
In fact, the sun exactly rises due east and sets due west on two days of the year: the spring and fall equinoxes. On the other days, the sun will rise either south or north of “due east” and set south or north of “due west.”
Throughout the year, the rising and setting points of the sun slightly change each day.
- At the fall equinox, the sun rises due east and sets due west, where it will continue on its journey southward. On the winter solstice, the sun will rise as far south as usual and will set far to the southwest.
- At the summer solstice, the sun will rise furthest to the northeast and set furthest to the northwest. And every day after that, the sun will rise a little further south.
Variations in sunrise time throughout the year are also affected by some factors, including the altitude, time zone, and the viewer’s latitude and longitude. These are driven by the daily rotation of the Earth, the axial tilt of the Earth, the planet’s movement in its annual elliptical orbit around the sun, and the paired revolutions of the earth and moon around each other.
In late winter and spring, sunrise occurs earlier each day, reaching its earliest time near the summer solstice if it’s viewed from temperate climates, although the exact date will vary with latitude. After this, the timing of sunrise will get slower each day and reach its latest point around the winter solstice.
Changes in the sunrise time and position are also influenced by variations in atmospheric refraction. Near the poles, the variation in the time of day is excessive since the sun crosses the horizon at a very shallow angle and thus rises later.
Why Does the Sunrise Emit Different Colors?
We all often see the sunrise at the horizon turn different colors, even every day; it could be either oranges, reds, or yellows. We need to know that there is a system in play when it comes to changing colors, especially at golden hours.
There is no doubt that the sun, which is responsible on our earth for all daylight, actually produces energy through nuclear vision. It occurs when two small, lightweight atomic nuclei combine to compose a single helium nucleus. Through its process, it generates a wide range of energy.
Basically, sunlight is white light, but it carries all of the colors of the rainbow, including red, yellow, green, blue, indigo, orange, and violet. These colors will be easier to see when they are shone through a prism since it bends the light into its constituent parts. The white light of the sun itself consists of more than what people can see with the naked eye. The sun delivers ultraviolet and infrared rays, but almost no humans can see those.
Another factor that affects the color changes of the sun is the earth’s atmosphere. When the sunlight hits the atmosphere, the light is scattered by the gas molecules. So, the shorter wavelength of light will be scattered more, and the smallest wavelength of visible light will be blue—that’s why the sky is blue during daylight.
When the sun gets closer to the horizon both at sunrise and sunset, its light will move sideways through more of the atmosphere before reaching our eyes, and the blue light becomes more scattered, even invisible anymore.
Because of the additional scattering of blue light, its intensity will decrease, and we can see the sunlight close to the horizon being red, yellow, and orange. You may also see a green line at sunrise or sunset in which the yellow color mixes with the blue sky a little further above the horizon. It means that the thicker the atmosphere, the more light is scattered.
A bookworm and researcher especially related to law and citizenship education. I spend time every day in front of the internet and the campus library.
