images

Earth observation of a sunrise

by

Nasa/Novapix

Reference

t-nua10-00004

Date

2006-09-25

The colors of this sunrise scene provide insights into the relative density of the Earth's atmosphere. This scene captures the silhouette of several thunderstorms with their cirrus anvil tops spreading out against the tropopause - the top of the lowest layer of atmosphere, the troposphere which is also the most dense and refracts light at the red end  of  the spectrum while the blues refract in the stratosphere, the highest layer. Image taken from the space shuttle Endeavour in september 1992.