Mirage

For other uses, see Mirage (disambiguation). 1 Inferior mirage

A mirage is a naturally occurring optical phenomenon

An inferior mirage on the Mojave Desert in spring

For exhausted travelers in the desert, an inferior mirage

Various kinds of mirages in one location taken over the course of may appear to be a lake of water in the distance. An in-
six minutes, not shown in temporal order. The uppermost inset ferior mirage is called inferior because the mirage is
frame shows an inferior mirage of the Farallon Islands. The located under the real object. The real object in an in-
second inset frame is the Farallon Islands with a green ash on ferior mirage is the (blue) sky or any distant (therefore
the left-hand side. The two lower frames and the main frame bluish) object in that same direction. The mirage causes
all show superior mirages of the Farallon Islands. In these three
the observer to see a bright and bluish patch on the ground
frames, the superior mirages evolve from a 3-image mirage (an
inverted image between two erect ones) to a 5-image mirage, and
in the distance.
then back to a 2-image mirage. Such a display is consistent with a
Light rays coming from a particular distant object all
Fata Morgana. All frames but the upper one were photographedtravel through nearly the same air layers and all are bent
from about 5070 feet above sea level. The upper frame was over about the same amount. Therefore, rays coming
photographed from sea level. from the top of the object will arrive lower than those
from the bottom. The image usually is upside down, en-
hancing the illusion that the sky image seen in the distance
in which light rays are bent to produce a displaced image is really a water or oil puddle acting as a mirror.
of distant objects or the sky. The word comes to English
via the French mirage, from the Latin mirari, meaning Inferior images are not stable. Hot air rises, and cooler
to look at, to wonder at. This is the same root as for air (being more dense) descends, so the layers will mix,
"mirror" and to admire. giving rise to turbulence. The image will be distorted ac-
cordingly. It may be vibrating; it may be vertically ex-
In contrast to a hallucination, a mirage is a real optical tended (towering) or horizontally extended (stooping). If
phenomenon that can be captured on camera, since light there are several temperature layers, several mirages may
rays are actually refracted to form the false image at the mix, perhaps causing double images. In any case, mirages
observers location. What the image appears to represent, are usually not larger than about half a degree high (same
however, is determined by the interpretive faculties of the apparent size as the sun and moon) and from objects only
human mind. For example, inferior images on land are a few kilometers away.
very easily mistaken for the reections from a small body
of water.
Mirages can be categorized as inferior (meaning lower), 1.1 Heat haze
superior (meaning higher) and "Fata Morgana", one
kind of superior mirage consisting of a series of unusu- Heat haze, also called heat shimmer, refers to the infe-
ally elaborate, vertically stacked images, which form one rior mirage experienced when viewing objects through a
rapidly changing mirage. layer of heated air; for example, viewing objects across

1
2 2 SUPERIOR MIRAGE

2 Superior mirage

Heat haze caused by jet engine exhaust

hot asphalt or through the exhaust gases produced by jet Superior mirage: plane on ice, McMurdo Station
engines. When appearing on roads due to the hot asphalt,
it is often referred to as a highway mirage.
Convection causes the temperature of the air to vary, and
the variation between the hot air at the surface of the road
and the denser cool air above it creates a gradient in the
refractive index of the air. This produces a blurred shim-
mering eect, which aects the ability to resolve objects,
the eect being increased when the image is magnied
through a telescope or telephoto lens.

A hot-road mirage, fake water on the road, the most common

example of an inferior mirage An articial mirage, using sugar solutions to simulate the inver-
sion layers. A cat is seen looking through a glass, which has three
Light from the sky at a shallow angle to the road is layers of solution, with decreasing refractive index from bottom
refracted by the index gradient, making it appear as if to top. The cat appears in multiple images. This simulates an
the sky is reected by the roads surface. The mind inter- atmosphere with two inversion layers.
prets this as a pool of water on the road, since water also
reects the sky. The illusion fades as one gets closer. A superior mirage occurs when the air below the line of
sight is colder than the air above it. This unusual arrange-
On tarmac roads it may look as if water, or even oil, has ment is called a temperature inversion, since warm air
been spilled. These kinds of inferior mirages are often above cold air is the opposite of the normal temperature
called desert mirages or highway mirages. Both sand gradient of the atmosphere. Passing through the temper-
and tarmac can become very hot when exposed to the ature inversion, the light rays are bent down, and so the
sun, easily being more than 10 C hotter than the air one image appears above the true object, hence the name su-
meter above, enough to create conditions suitable for the perior. Superior mirages are in general less common than
formation of the mirage. inferior mirages, but, when they do occur, they tend to be
Heat haze is not related to the atmospheric phenomenon more stable, as cold air has no tendency to move up and
of haze. warm air has no tendency to move down.
2.1 Fata Morgana 3

Superior mirages are quite common in polar regions, es-

pecially over large sheets of ice that have a uniform low
temperature. Superior mirages also occur at more moder-
ate latitudes, although in those cases they are weaker and
tend to be less smooth and stable. For example, a dis-
tant shoreline may appear to tower and look higher (and,
thus, perhaps closer) than it really is. Because of the tur-
bulence, there appear to be dancing spikes and towers.
This type of mirage is also called the Fata Morgana or
hafgerdingar in the Icelandic language.[1]
A superior mirage can be right-side up or upside down,
depending on the distance of the true object and the tem-
perature gradient. Often the image appears as a distorted
mixture of up and down parts.
Superior mirages can have a striking eect due to the Sequence of a Fata Morgana of the Farallon Islands as seen from
Earths curvature. Were the Earth at, light rays that bend San Francisco
down would soon hit the ground and only nearby objects
would be aected. Since Earth is round, if their down-
ward bending curve is about the same as the curvature of 2.1 Fata Morgana
the Earth, light rays can travel large distances, perhaps
from beyond the horizon. This was observed and docu- Main article: Fata Morgana (mirage)
mented for the rst time in 1596, when a ship under the
command of Willem Barentsz in search of the Northeast
A Fata Morgana, the name of which comes from the Ital-
passage became stuck in the ice at Novaya Zemlya. The
ian translation of Morgan le Fay, the fairy shapeshifting
crew was forced to endure the polar winter there. They
half-sister of King Arthur, is a very complex superior
saw their midwinter night come to an end with the rise
mirage. It appears with alternations of compressed and
of a distorted Sun about two weeks earlier than expected.
stretched zones, erect images, and inverted images.[2] A
It was not until the 20th century that science could ex-
Fata Morgana is also a fast-changing mirage.
plain the reason: the real Sun had still been below the
horizon, but its light rays followed the curvature of the Fata Morgana mirages are most common in polar regions,
Earth. This eect is often called a Novaya Zemlya mi- especially over large sheets of ice with a uniform low
rage. For every 111.12 kilometres (69.05 mi) the light temperature, but they can be observed almost anywhere.
In polar regions, a Fata Morgana may be observed on
rays can travel parallel to the Earths surface, the Sun will
appear 1 higher on the horizon. The inversion layer must cold days; in desert areas and over oceans and lakes, a
have just the right temperature gradient over the whole Fata Morgana may be observed on hot days. For a Fata
distance to make this possible. Morgana, temperature inversion has to be strong enough
that light rays curvatures within the inversion are stronger
In the same way, ships that are in reality so far away that
than the curvature of the Earth.[2]
they should not be visible above the geometric horizon
may appear on the horizon or even above the horizon as The rays will bend and create arcs. An observer needs
superior mirages. This may explain some stories about to be within an atmospheric duct to be able to see a
[3]
ying ships or coastal cities in the sky, as described by Fata Morgana. Fata Morgana mirages may be observed
some polar explorers. These are examples of so-called from any altitude within the Earths atmosphere, includ-
Arctic mirages, or hillingar in Icelandic. ing from mountaintops or airplanes.[4][5]
If the vertical temperature gradient is +12.9 C per 100 A Fata Morgana can go from superior to inferior mirage
meters (where the positive sign means temperature gets and back within a few seconds, depending on the con-
hotter as one goes higher) then horizontal light rays will stantly changing conditions of the atmosphere. Sixteen
just follow the curvature of the Earth, and the horizon will frames of the mirage of the Farallon Islands, which can-
appear at. If the gradient is less (as it almost always is) not be seen from sea level at all under normal conditions
the rays are not bent enough and get lost in space, which because they are located below the horizon, were pho-
is the normal situation of a spherical, convex horizon. tographed on the same day. The rst fourteen frames
have elements of a Fata Morgana displayalternations
In some situations, distant objects can get elevated or low-
of compressed and stretched zones.[2] The last two frames
ered, stretched or shortened with no mirage involved.
were photographed a few hours later around sunset. The
air was cooler while the ocean was probably a little bit
warmer, which made temperature inversion lower. The
mirage was still present, but it was not as complex as it
had been a few hours before sunset, and it corresponded
4 6 EXTERNAL LINKS

no longer to a Fata Morgana but rather to a superior mi- [2] An Introduction to Mirages by Andy Young
rage display.
[3] SDSU.edu, Atmospheric Optics Glossary by Andy
Distortions of image and bending of light can produce Young
spectacular eects. In his book Pursuit: The Chase and
Sinking of the Bismarck, the author Ludovic Kennedy [4] Durst and Bull (1956). Met. Mag. 85. pp. 237242.
describes an incident that allegedly took place below the [5] Andrew, Young. Annotated bibliography of mirages, green
Denmark Strait during 1941, following the sinking of the ashes, atmospheric refraction, etc.
Hood. The Bismarck, while pursued by the British cruis-
ers Norfolk and Suolk, passed out of sight into a sea
mist. Within a matter of seconds, the ship re-appeared 6 External links
steaming toward the British ships at high speed. In alarm
the cruisers separated, anticipating an imminent attack,
and observers from both ships watched in astonishment All kind of mirages explained
as the German battleship uttered, grew indistinct and China daily, rare mirage in Penglai
faded away. Radar watch during these events indicated
that the Bismarck had in fact made no changes of course. The superior mirage

The inferior mirage

3 Night-time mirages The highway mirage

Fata Morgana Mirage from the Continental Divide
The conditions for producing a mirage can take place at Trail
night. Under most conditions, these are not observed.
However, under some circumstances lights from moving Bowley, Roger (2009). Mirages. Sixty Symbols.
vehicles, aircraft, ships, buildings, etc. can be observed at Brady Haran for the University of Nottingham.
night, even though, as with a daytime mirage, they would
not be observable.[1]
This includes the mirage of astronomical objects.

3.1 Mirage of astronomical objects

Main article: Mirage of astronomical objects

A mirage of an astronomical object is a naturally occur-

ring optical phenomenon, in which light rays are bent to
produce distorted or multiple images of an astronomical
object. The mirages might be observed for such astro-
nomical objects as the Sun, the Moon, the planets, bright
stars, and very bright comets. The most commonly ob-
served are sunset and sunrise mirages.

4 See also
Atmospheric refraction

Looming and similar refraction phenomena

Mirage of astronomical objects

5 References
[1] David K. Lynch & William Livingston (2001). Color and
Light in Nature (2nd ed.). Cambridge, UK: Cambridge
University Press. p. 58. ISBN 978-0-521-77504-5.
 5

7 Text and image sources, contributors, and licenses

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