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Sunrise is the time at which the first part of the sun appears above the horizon in the east. Sunrise should not be confused with dawn, which is the point at which the sky begins to lighten, well before the sun itself appears.

The earth’s atmosphere bends sunlight causing the sun to be seen while it is still below the horizon, creating daily optical illusions at both sunrise and sunset. The sun appears to revolve around the earth in a westward direction throughout the day because the earth turns in an eastward direction. This same effect can be seen with near polar satellites as well.

As sunrise and sunset are calculated from the leading and trailing edges of the sun, and not the center, this slightly increases the duration of “day” relative to “night.” The sunrise equation, however, is based on the center of the sun. In the northern hemisphere, the latest sunrise is not at the winter solstice around December 21, but rather in early January. Likewise, the earliest sunrise is not around June 21 (the summer solstice), but in early July

Some of the text copied from the following

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sunrise.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sunset

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