Some examples of mirages which are also atmospheric lensing/refraction effects.
Here is a website that shows a series of Fata Morgana (mirage) images. http://www.davewalshphoto.com/2010/01/17/fata_morgana/
Notice: Fata Morgana are incredibly common in the Arctic; with cold air hovering above the frozen sea water of the icepack and with 24 hour summer sunshine warming up the air, the inversions are numerous, fantastic and bizarre.
This is exactly the point: our atmosphere is changing!!!!
And here is a video explaining things:
Commonly associated with nature, mirages are visual illusions where what we see is correct, but unusual. Mirages in nature are most commonly caused by unusual bending of light under unusual air conditions. The view is so abnormal that the viewer sometimes 'can't believe his eyes' or radically misinterprets the image.
The most famous mirage is when it erroneously appears as if a pool of water is in the desert. More than a few thirsty wanderers have found nothing but disappointment ahead. The earlier pictured 'water in the road' is the same type of mirage. Another mirage is for sailors or to see an upside down ship in the sky, even when there isn't one visible on the sea. Enough to convince a pirate to switch to a better class of hooch.
These three particular mirages happen when there are abnormal layers of hot versus cold air that cause the light to refract. or bend, off its normal, straight course. This bending causes an object to appear in an unexpected place. In the desert and highway a piece of the sky appears below the horizon, and is often wrongly interpreted to be water. At sea a ship 'is bent' upwards so it appears in the air.
A mirage is called a superior mirage where the object appears above where it normally appears (boat in sky). An inferior mirage is when the object appears below the where it normally appears (sky in desert).
The inferior mirage happens when there is hot air near the ground. It shouldn't surprise that inferior images commonly happen when the ground surface is hot (desert, hot summer highway).
A superior mirage happens when there is cold air near the surface. It shouldn't be surprising that superior mirages commonly appear when the ground or water surface is cold, like the cold sea or frozen lake. Superior mirages commonly appear in frigid areas, including the arctic. http://www.cycleback.com/mirages.html
Scientists at San Diego State University have explained an eerie floating image of the Chicago skyline that appeared upside down over Lake Michigan in mid-April 2015, according to the Detroit Free Press. The image on the horizon was a superior mirage, they say.
Superior mirages are created thanks to an interaction between cold and warm air layers that distorts light rays.
“A thermal inversion forms over the lake, bending the line of sight from the camera to Chicago back down, and producing the inverted image, which is typical of mirages,” explained Andrew Young, astronomer at San Diego State, to the Detroit Free Press. “Normally, Chicago is hidden by the curvature of the Earth, so that it lies below the lake horizon. Here, the optical ray curvature is stronger than the curvature of the lake surface, and that brings the city’s buildings into view.” http://www.lakescientist.com/explaining-lake-michigans-chicago-mirage/
Here is a website that shows a series of Fata Morgana (mirage) images. http://www.davewalshphoto.com/2010/01/17/fata_morgana/
Notice: Fata Morgana are incredibly common in the Arctic; with cold air hovering above the frozen sea water of the icepack and with 24 hour summer sunshine warming up the air, the inversions are numerous, fantastic and bizarre.
This is exactly the point: our atmosphere is changing!!!!
And here is a video explaining things: