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Sunset
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Sunset is the daily disappearance of the sun below the horizon as a result of the Earth's rotation. The atmospheric conditions created by the setting of the sun are also commonly referred to as "a sunset". These conditions often appear before and after the precise moment the sun disappears below the horizon, and as a result the term "sunset" in common usage has a substantially looser meaning than in scientific and technical applications.
In astronomy the time of sunset is defined as the moment the trailing edge of the sun's disk disappears below the horizon in the west.
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Encyclopedia
Sunset is the daily disappearance of the sun below the horizon as a result of the Earth's rotation. The atmospheric conditions created by the setting of the sun are also commonly referred to as "a sunset". These conditions often appear before and after the precise moment the sun disappears below the horizon, and as a result the term "sunset" in common usage has a substantially looser meaning than in scientific and technical applications.
In astronomy the time of sunset is defined as the moment the trailing edge of the sun's disk disappears below the horizon in the west. Due to refraction of light in the atmosphere, the ray path of the setting sun is highly distorted near the horizon making the apparent astronomical sunset occur when the sun’s disk is already about one diameter below the horizon. Sunset should not be confused with dusk, which is the moment at which darkness falls, when the sun is about eighteen degrees below the horizon. The period between the astronomical sunset and dusk is called twilight.
Occurrence
The timing of sunset varies with the time of year and the latitude of the location from which it is viewed. The precise local time of sunset also depends upon each location's precise longitude within a given time zone. Small daily changes and noticeable semi-annual changes in timing of sunset are driven by the axial tilt of Earth, the spherical shape of the Earth, and the planet's movement in its annual orbit around the sun. Some apparent anomalies exist however, the main one caused by the Earth's axial tilt and the Earth's elliptical orbit. In the Northern Hemisphere, the earliest sunset does not fall on the winter solstice around December 21, but instead it occurs earlier in December. Likewise, the latest sunset does not fall on the summer solstice around June 21, but instead it happens later in June or in early July, depending on one's latitude. The same phenomenon exists in the Southern Hemisphere except with the respective dates being some time before June 21 in winter and some time after December 21 in summer, possibly in January of the following year. For one or two weeks surrounding both solstices, both sunrise and sunset get slightly later or earlier each day. Even on the equator, sunrise and sunset shift several minutes back and forth through the year, along with solar noon. This effect is plotted by an analemma.
Due to Earth's axial tilt, whenever and wherever sunset occurs, sunset is always to the northwest from the March equinox to the September equinox, and to the southwest from the September equinox to the March equinox. Sunsets occur precisely due west on the equinoxes, and the duration of day and night are approximately equal on the equinoxes for all viewers on Earth (precisely 12 hours if measured from the geometric (unrefracted) centre of the sun).
As sunrise and sunset are calculated from the leading and trailing edges of the sun, and not the centre, the duration of "day" is slightly longer than "night". Further, because the light from the sun is bent by the atmospheric refraction, the sun is still visible after it is geometrically below the horizon. The sun also appears larger on the horizon, which is another optical illusion, similar to the moon illusion.
Colors
Sunset colors are a result of scattering off air molecules and small particles in the atmosphere. The scattering is wavelength-dependent; shorter wavelengths (violet and blue) are scattered out of the sun beam more strongly than are longer wavelengths (orange and red). This wavelength dependence produces two complementary effects: One, the scattered light from a clear sky is blue; and two, when the sun is low in the sky, the loss of blue light due to scattering leaves the remaining light orange or red. Clouds and other wavelength-independent (white) scatterers light up orange or red when illuminated by this light. A complete description of the light scattering in the atmosphere is given by Mie theory or the discrete dipole approximation.
While ash and soot from volcanic eruptions tends to mute sunset colors when trapped within the troposphere, when lofted into the stratosphere, thin clouds of tiny sulfuric acid droplets from volcanoes can yield beautiful post-sunset colors called afterglows. A number of eruptions, including those of Mount Pinatubo in 1991 and Krakatoa 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.
Sometimes just before sunrise or after sunset a green flash can be seen.
Sunsets on other planets
Sunsets on other planets appear different because of the differences in the distance from the planet to the sun and in different atmospheric compositions.
Because Mars is farther from the Sun than the Earth is, the Sun appears only about two-thirds the size that it appears in a sunset seen from the Earth. Although Mars lacks oxygen and nitrogen, it is covered in red dust frequently hoisted into the atmosphere by fast but thin winds. At least some Martian days are capped by a sunset significantly longer and redder than typical on Earth. One study found that for up to two hours after twilight, sunlight continued to reflect off Martian dust high in the atmosphere, casting a diffuse glow.
See also
External links
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- (Wikimedia Commons gallery)
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- with VBA functions for sunrise, sunset, solar noon, twilight (dawn and dusk), and solar position (azimuth and elevation); by , translated from NOAA's online calculators for and
- Online sunrise/sunset calendar with interactive location finder
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