Starts when the sun is 18° below the horizon (the sky is no longer pitch black). How to Find Your Local Time
Begins when the sun is 6° below the horizon. This is when there is enough light to see clearly without artificial lamps.
Sunrise is officially defined as the moment when the (top edge) of the Sun first appears on the horizon. However, the exact time this occurs is not a fixed universal constant; it is a moving target that shifts every day based on where you are on Earth and the time of year. The Mechanics of Sunrise Time
You can get the exact sunrise time for your specific location using tools like the Time and Date Sunrise Calculator or the US Naval Observatory's Data Portal . For example, as of April 29, 2026, the sunrise in is at 6:47 AM , while in New York City it is 5:58 AM .
For scientific and navigational purposes, sunrise is calculated to occur when the center of the Sun is geometrically from the zenith (straight up). This specific angle accounts for:
Many people confuse "dawn" with "sunrise," but they are distinct stages of morning light:
Because the Earth rotates 15° every hour, your east-west position determines your "true" sunrise time relative to UTC (Greenwich Mean Time).
Due to the Earth's tilted axis and elliptical orbit, our clocks (which run at a constant speed) and the Sun (which appears to move at varying speeds) don't always match. This is why the earliest sunrise of the year doesn't actually fall on the summer solstice. Dawn vs. Sunrise