Chinese Lantern Sunrise

Usually you see the Chinese Lantern effect when watching a sunrise or sunset over the ocean. However, here the horizon is far enough away that I can see it from my deck. When the atmosphere is calm the strata of air settle into layers of different temperatures and densities. So instead of a circle, the sun appears distorted because we are looking at it through air layers of different refractivities. Note that the air layer nearest the earth will be denser and hence more absorbent causing the sun to appear more red than the layer above it. (You can also see the same reddening effect in the January 8th post). Always interesting to see natural phenomena and recognize the physics behind it.