Nature's Path: Start day right with a sunrise

Do you have a favorite place to watch the sunrise? Perhaps you are lucky enough to have a great view out your living room window, or from your back porch. We have an abundance of trees around us, for which we are grateful for many reasons. While they add their own beauty, these large plants require us to leave home for that perfect, unobstructed sunrise view.

A favorite roost for me and Keith, my morning amigo, to watch the sun emerge is the Thompson Hill lookout beneath the visitor center on Skyline Drive. We are usually not alone, as a few other vehicles pull in for a front row seat.

Some of the shows would earn a thumbs down from Siskel and Ebert (ask a Boomer if you don't know who they are), but many of them hold amazing displays of color. They change quickly, with the first light appearing about 50 minutes before the listed start time. Kind of like the movie previews before showtime.

Clean air is the main ingredient common to brightly colored sunrises, according to Stephen F. Corfidi of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. In an article on the NOAA website, Corfidi tells us that scattering is the reason for those awesome views, and he gives us the science to understand this phenomenon. Scattering is the scientific term used to describe the reflection or redirection of light by small particles. Selective scattering, also known as Rayleigh scattering (after the 19th-century English physicist Lord Rayleigh), is used to describe scattering that varies with the wavelength of the light. Particles are good Rayleigh scatterers when they are very small compared to the wavelength of the light.

As many of us learned while drawing rainbows as children, sunlight is composed of a spectrum of colors. The wavelengths in this spectrum vary, with violet and blue at the short end, and red at the longer end. Air molecules are about a thousand times smaller than the wavelengths of the light, making air a good Rayleigh scatterer. Air molecules are slightly closer in size to the shorter wavelength of violet light than to that of red light, causing air to scatter violet light three to four times more effectively than it does the longer wavelengths.

When the sun is low on the horizon as it is at sunrise, sunlight takes a much longer path through the atmosphere than during the middle part of the day. This results in nearly infinite scattering "events" that occur along the way as the light reaches the observer's eye.

Clean air has little dust or smog, leaving mostly tiny air molecules to scatter the shorter waves of light, and allowing the longer reds and oranges to create our glorious sunrises. But, when the air is dirty and contains a lot of dust and smog particles, which are larger than air particles, they scatter the longer waves of light. This leaves little color for our sunrise viewing.

Clouds are another ingredient that add interest and play a major role in creating unique and inspiring sunrises. They cause the light to reflect and refract into stunning patterns, but that is another column for another day.

As a morning person, I love the excitement that a new day brings. As a kid, I would wake up with that tingly feeling in my stomach that signaled another day was beginning with the possibility of great adventure. While that feeling is now triggered by a strong cup of coffee rather than youthful energy, it continues to evoke images of a day filled with possibilities. Watching the sunrise is a great way to start the day with delight.

We are fortunate to live near our favorite sunrise viewing perch, with a schedule that allows us to occasionally watch the glory of the day unfold in person. Of course, this time of year, we have to get up a few minutes earlier each day to catch those first rays of color on the horizon. While the Thompson Hill lookout did not make the list of Reader's Digest top 10 best places to watch the sunrise in the world, it is No. 1 on our list.

If you are unable to watch the sunrise in person, there are several live cam feeds online that allow you to peek at the sunrise. The Duluth canal cam is a good source for watching the sunrise over Lake Superior. A search online will give you other sources, literally around the world! Whether you watch the daylight break in person from the comfort of your home, or tune in online, be sure to start each day with a magnificent morning sunrise. Understanding the science behind a sunrise does not diminish its spectacle or beauty, it merely increases the wow factor.

Ruth Reeves, a former journalist, naturalist and community ed director, lives in rural Carlton County and enjoys outdoor adventures in all seasons with her husband, Keith. She finds that one good adventure leads to another. Email Ruth at [email protected].