# Differences between sunrise and sunset
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/differences-between-sunrise-and-sunset/294330
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [March 13, 2005, 3:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/differences-between-sunrise-and-sunset/294330 "2005-03-13T15:15:44Z")
**Posts on this page:** 6
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@GreyWanderer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GreyWanderer)
#### Post date: [March 13, 2005, 3:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/differences-between-sunrise-and-sunset/294330/1 "2005-03-13T15:15:44Z")
My mother is doing some painting, and she was talking about different lightning conditions. What was special about something being lit up by a sunset for example. I argued that it should be impossible to tell the difference between sunset lightning and sunrise lightning. I’ve never given this much thought before, so maybe I am mistaken?
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### Author:  [@chrisk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chrisk)
#### Post date: [March 13, 2005, 3:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/differences-between-sunrise-and-sunset/294330/2 "2005-03-13T15:18:33Z")
I know I’ve heard of movies doing a ‘sunrise over the atlantic’ establishing shot by shooting a sunset over the pacific and time-reversing it, or something like that. Cheaper than actually flying across the continent. (Presumably you could tell the difference by watching the waves REALLY closely. 😉 )
But that sort of thing implies that there’s not much difference in the sky.
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### Author:  [@GorillaMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GorillaMan)
#### Post date: [March 13, 2005, 3:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/differences-between-sunrise-and-sunset/294330/3 "2005-03-13T15:23:30Z")
Assuming you meant to say ‘lighting’, I could imagine one reason that the effects of the two could be different, when over land: sunsets will happen over land that’s been warmed up, giving different conditions of convection in the athmosphere, possible causing noticeably-different optical effects.
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### Author:  [@Aagramn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aagramn)
#### Post date: [March 13, 2005, 3:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/differences-between-sunrise-and-sunset/294330/4 "2005-03-13T15:57:33Z")
> [@GorillaMan](#):
>
> Assuming you meant to say ‘lighting’, I could imagine one reason that the effects of the two could be different, when over land: sunsets will happen over land that’s been warmed up, giving different conditions of convection in the athmosphere, possible causing noticeably-different optical effects.
This could result in sunsets being generally more spectacular than sunrises. The thermal currents may life more dust into the upper atmosphere, scattering the sunlight more. However, I don’t generally get up early enough in the morning to test this hypothesis. 😉 Even if this is correct the effect might be insignificant compared to the local weather conditions.
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### Author:  [@BobT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BobT)
#### Post date: [March 13, 2005, 4:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/differences-between-sunrise-and-sunset/294330/5 "2005-03-13T16:44:17Z")
If it’s an area near a seacoast, there almost always will be more moisture in the air at sunrise than sunset. Makes the two events look distinctly different.
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### Author:  [@Zsofia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zsofia)
#### Post date: [March 13, 2005, 4:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/differences-between-sunrise-and-sunset/294330/6 "2005-03-13T16:49:22Z")
IMHO, sunrises look different. Of course, the sunrises I’ve seen may be affected by my mood at the time; cold, sleepy, running to get that paper under that door before that professor shows up - so it might not be a real effect, but I _think_ I could tell the difference between a spectacular sunrise and a spectacular sunset.