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An extremely brilliant firery red "sunset" or "sunrise" , of unusual intensity. Usually illuminating the under portions of clouds and especially storm clouds or smoke from wild fires; where high levels of moisture or dust particles are present in the atmosphere, giving the appearance of a firey red sunrise or sunset. This is caused by sunlight that travels through more of the atmosphere during sunset, causing shorter wavelength blue light to scatter away, leaving longer wavelength red and yellow light to reach our eyes. This process is called Rayleigh scattering, which occurs when light scatters off of gas molecules and other particles (such as water droplets or dust) in the atmosphere. When this happens and clouds are present, depending on conditions the light can reflect or refract and explode in a brilliant firey array of pastel colors giving off all shades of red, orange and yellow light. When these conditions are extreme, some storm chasers and photographers refer to this as "Ruth's Fire" , or a "Ruthy's Fire" Sunset or Sunrise. Both terms are valid and used. Defintion 2. Ruth's Fire is any extreme red spectrum or red shift releigh scattering. Defintion of Ruth's Fire/ Ruthy's Fire is any sun set or sun rise of "extremely"' vivid and brilliant firey colors; associated usually with clouds along the horizon and especially storm clouds while the sun is at its lowest point.
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