this was shot from about 35,000 feet above sea level through the dirty multi layered window of a 747.

If you want to see this yourself, then fly from Dulles Airport in Virginia to Narita Airport in Japan on ANA flight 1during December.
This flight leaves at about 11:00 EST and passes over Alaska during sunset which lasts a long time since the plane follows the sunset.
The low sun creates the shadows and highlights.


take a look at http://pbase.com/slug/roll_087
for a full roll. the red edges in some photos are completely natural and not photoshopped.