Alpenglow is often misunderstood. More accurately, certain lighting conditions are labeled as alpenglow when they are not, in fact.
Alpenglow is simply redirected light. Think of the clouds and atmosphere as a giant strobe reflector. Think of the sun as a giant strobe (for which, there is no PocketWizard controls). In the image art right, the entire scene is lit from light bouncing off the atmosphere and hitting Seattle and Mt. Rainier. If we had no atmosphere, the light would just pass on by as the sun is not yet over the horizon. (If you don