Sunrise from Space

^{Image Credit: NASA, STS 41-D crew.}

The rainbow colors in this image are not those of a summer storm. They are a sunrise seen from space, as recorded by the crew of the space shuttle Discovery in September 1984 over the South China Sea. Space shuttle crews encounter a sunrise or sunset every 45 minutes, while they orbit the earth once every hour and a half.

The black silhouettes seen against the colorful background are clouds. The brilliance of the colors is due to dust in the atmosphere. More atmospheric dust is found at the equator than at other latitudes. Most of it comes from storms in Africa and ash clouds ejected by volcanic eruptions.

More Cool Stuff

For information on this image and the earth's atmosphere, visit the Windows to the Universe Web site at the University of Michigan. Click on the opening graphic, pick any interest level, click the "Our Planet" button, and then choose "Atmosphere":

http://windows.engin.umich.edu

If volcanic eruptions are your interest, check out VolcanoWorld at the University of North Dakota:

http://volcano.und.nodak.edu

To learn about clouds, storms from space, and other weather phenomena, try Athena, and click on "Weather and the Atmosphere":

http://www.athena.ivv.nasa.gov

The shuttle mission whose crew took the above image had the designation STS 41-D:

http://www.ksc.nasa.gov/shuttle/missions/41-d/mission-41-d.html

Check out other observations in the Observation of the Week Archive.