Thanksgiving Sunset

From NASA's Earth Observatory:

In case you missed it, check out the spectacular Thanksgiving sunset that NASA astronaut Terry Virts tweeted from the International Space Station yesterday. The image presents an edge-on, or limb view, of the Earth’s atmosphere as seen from orbit. Above the darkened surface of the Earth, a brilliant sequence of colors roughly denotes several layers of the atmosphere. Deep oranges and yellows appear in the troposphere, which extends from the Earth’s surface to 6–20 km high. This layer contains over 80 percent of the mass of the atmosphere and almost all of the water vapor, clouds, and precipitation. The white line above the clouds marks the lower stratosphere; this atmospheric layer generally has few or no clouds, and it extends up to approximately 50 kilometers above the Earth’s surface. Above the stratosphere, blue layers likely mark the transition between the middle and upper atmosphere as it gradually fades into the blackness of outer space.