FingerLakes Farm Country Colorful Sunrise Stock Photography

Eastern sky showing moments before actual sunrise. Daybreak along northern Cayuga Lake farm country in the FingerLakes region of NewYorkState. Morning sunrise showing cirrostratus and cirrus clouds. Astronomical, Nautical and Civil dawn. Sunrise colors are caused by a phenomenon called Rayleigh scattering. The Sun is low on the horizon at sunrise and sunset, so sunlight has had to travel through more of the atmosphere to reach us. When light hits the atmosphere, it is scattered, particularly when dust, smoke, and other particles are in the air. This scattering affects the blue part of the light spectrum the most, causing the blue light to scatter away from our line of sight and making the sky and Sun appear red. The axial tilt of the Earth highly affects sunrise as well as the movement of the planet on the annual elliptical orbit. The stage of sunrise known as false sunrise actually occurs before the Sun truly reaches the horizon because Earth's atmosphere refracts the Sun's image.