The article tells about what a mirage is, what causes such a phenomenon, how it can be dangerous and what types of it are.

Around us every second there are many physical, chemical and other processes. True, most of them have a form that people are used to and no longer pay any attention to. For example, boiling water on the stove, which turns into steam. But even if we think about more global scales, for example, about the burning of the Sun, this fact will still not surprise anyone. But in fact, in its bowels, amazing and so far beyond the control of human reproduction reactions take place. But such reasoning can be of interest, probably, only to a person who is sincerely fond of science.

However, sometimes there are situations when the most simple and harmless physical processes can greatly surprise, confuse, and very rarely even kill a person. Or rather, just push him to some unreasonable destructive actions. And one of these is a mirage.

Mirage... This word, probably, was heard by all people, and it is associated primarily with hot deserts, where unfortunate travelers, seeing illusory oases, rushed to them. However, not everyone knows what causes such visions and what types of them are. We will talk about this.

Origin of the word

It has French roots and in the original sounds like mirage, which literally means "visibility". A mirage is one of the most common optical illusions, which occurs as a result of the refraction of light rays at the boundary between layers of air that differ sharply in their temperature. And sometimes, as a result of a mirage, the observer, in addition to a really existing distant object, also sees its reflection in the sky. So a mirage is a rather curious optical atmospheric phenomenon. However, for a very long time people could not understand its nature and endowed mystical meaning or taken for the machinations of evil spirits. Many legends and beliefs are associated with mirages, especially in the east.

Now let's look at the types of mirages.

Lower

This type of mirage is the most common and has been seen by many. To see it, it is not necessary to be in a hot desert. It is characterized by the fact that as a result of a strong drop in temperature with height, over a flat surface, for example, asphalt, concrete or sand, a person observes puddles of water. And this illusion is very convincing. And for many people in ancient times, who found themselves without water in the desert, to see such a mirage is to receive an imaginary hope for salvation.

Upper

This type of mirage is usually observed in cold conditions, when the air temperature rises with increasing altitude, for example, in the polar regions on large flat ice floes. In nature, this is quite rare, and this type of mirage was seen not even by all eminent travelers who visited the northern parts of our planet. The meaning of this phenomenon is that if the bend sun rays exactly the same as the curve of the Earth's surface, this allows you to see objects that are beyond the horizon at a very large distance. There is a legend that the Vikings discovered Iceland thanks to him. So a mirage is sometimes quite a useful phenomenon. And perhaps this is the explanation for the myths about flying ships - such a mirage on the sea makes them visible from the horizon and visually greatly increases both the size and speed of the ship.

Side

With side mirages, things are somewhat not as exciting as with other types. They arise as a result of strong heating of vertical surfaces by the sun. For example, there is a documented fact when in the Middle Ages the wall of the fortress shone like a mirror, and outwardly it seemed that it had become partially invisible and ghostly. So now we know the meaning of the word mirage and figured out what it is.

volumetric mirage

This type is also quite rare and mostly in the mountains. During this illusion, one can see oneself relatively nearby or other objects in a distorted perspective. This phenomenon is explained by the presence of water particles in the "stagnant" mountain air.

culture

Mirage as a phenomenon has found a strong reflection in culture - films, books, legends and fairy tales. Since ancient times, many travelers or explorers have been deceived by mirages, showing water where there is none. And by the way, if you walk on a hot day on a flat surface, for example, a road, then the lower mirage will move further and further as you approach it. One can only imagine the moral torment experienced by people who were stuck in the desert without a drop of water and saw such a deceptive phenomenon.

Mirage is an illusion of water, it is this form of it that is the most common both in life and in culture of various kinds. But as you can see, its varieties do not end there.

mysterious a natural phenomenon- mirage...

It happens in the desert, in the mountains and in the ocean ... We heard about the "Flying Dutchman" - this is the story of a disappeared ship. A ghost ship that can be observed in the ocean from afar, even at the present time. And how many people died in the deserts, moving towards a ghostly reservoir ...

Today the site - Travel around the world, will introduce you to interesting facts about miraculous optical illusions.

Mirror reflections of air in the sky. The shimmering and glowing illusion can fool even experienced travelers.

In the Sahara Desert not so long ago, a large caravan perished. About a hundred people and as many camels lost their way. Before the settlement where they were expected, there was only 1 day of travel. But a deceptive ghostly hoax led everyone aside. Satellite communication failed to correctly orient and failed.

Experienced guides even have special maps with detailed descriptions and marks of places with possible mirages.

Among all the phenomena that nature has created, there is nothing more curious and mysterious than this.

In the clouds of evaporation from the seas, oceans, fogs and lakes, there are many sea and vegetable salts. It is they who create smooth, as if polished, surfaces of the atmosphere for reflections.

An interesting example of a mirage phenomenon is the sunrise or sunset of the Sun or Moon.

In the rays of light, you can see objects and whole stories with people, ships and castles. The light of the sun and even the moon is distorted and refracted in all sorts of directions, and objects increase incredibly in size and shape.

Images of ancient castles and palaces with extraordinary architecture are formed. Beautiful plant landscapes and forest groves. Colors from light and shadows have incredible shades that the most modern cameras and cameras cannot convey.

The mystery of the mirage phenomenon remains the ability of nature from an ordinary board with the remnants of old paint and rust to reflect huge trees and houses. As realistic as your imagination will let you see.

Varieties of the mirage phenomenon

inferior mirage

You definitely met this phenomenon when you were driving along an asphalt road in a car. The road ahead is filled with water. And you drive closer and it's completely dry. It seems that puddles lie on a hot molten road. Very realistic and deceiving.

This phenomenon often occurs in the summer. This type occurs when the surface of the earth or road is very hot, in contrast to the air, which is slightly higher. It is called the lower because it appears below the horizon.

Streams of light are refracted due to the difference in temperature and density of the air layers.

Inferior mirage in the Sahara

superior mirage

This kind of illusion is formed over the horizon. Occurs when cooler air levels are lower than higher ones. Typically over icy landscapes or very cold water.

This illusory deception makes you look at the scene much higher than it should be. For example, you may see a mountain or a boat floating in the air. In this case, very large distortions of objects occur, making, for example, a boat much higher and wider than it actually is.

You can often see an upper mirage near the French Riviera.

Fata Morgana

A mirage can cause polar explorers to underestimate the distance between objects. The Fata Morgana effect involves the visibility of mountains, ships, etc. above the surface of the seas and oceans.

Complex repeating mirage

There was such a fairy Morgana in fairy tales. And it was she who joked her jokes with the sailors, luring them into the abyss of water.

Fata Morgana is a complex and repetitive optical illusion. Double, triple and...

moon illusion

An interesting example of the phenomenon of a mirage is the sunrise or sunset of the Sun and Moon. You definitely observed this and did not even think about why this was happening (for example, I only admired the beauty of a hot star or the Moon). A cosmic luminary of unrealistically huge size and fantastic color appears on the horizon.

Astronomers observe the same false increases in constellations far from us. In fact, their sizes really differ downwards from those reflected.

The illusion is greatly enhanced when familiar objects are nearby on the horizon. For example, when the setting sun is visible simultaneously between buildings a few blocks away.

Astronomers observe the same false increases in constellations far from us

"Flying Dutchman"

A ghost ship that rushes across the seas-oceans. Meeting with him promises misfortune and is a harbinger of a shipwreck. Appears suddenly and disappears in the fog just as instantly.

In 1941, on the transport ship Venor, sailors, led by the captain, rushed to rescue the ship, apparently in distress. Everyone watched the fire on the ship and the smoke. Imagine their surprise when, having come closer, the phantom disappeared and there were no signs of a disaster on the water.

Much later, the crew of sailors learned that it was at this time that a cruiser attacked by the Japanese was sinking more than 1000 miles away.

A clear example from reality. Not far from St. Petersburg there is the town of Lomonosov. It's on the Gulf of Finland. On certain days, when nature decides to show the focus, residents see the handsome St. Petersburg at a glance. Clear and crisp. Buildings, streets and even people on the streets.

An amazing and mysterious phenomenon of optical illusion is often observed in Alaska. And there is such a pattern that the more severe the frost, the brighter and more beautiful the illusion, which can be located hundreds of thousands of kilometers away.

It is absolutely impossible to study the phenomenon of a mirage and be prepared for its appearance. Nature doesn't follow rules.

Have you met phantoms, ghosts of ships or seen castles in the sky? I am only a huge moon in the sky and puddles of non-existent water on the paved road. But it still might be...

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Each of us met with mirages, when on a hot summer day we saw a mirror-like surface of water above the heated asphalt. But mirages often paint much more impressive pictures. This is a mysterious, and often dangerous phenomenon of nature.

Or maybe everything was a dream?

Mirages have been known for a long time. This phenomenon aroused sacred awe among the ancient Egyptians, who believed that mirages reflect something that no longer exists in the world - this is the ghost of a long-vanished country. The Crusaders, who were walking through the Palestinian desert to liberate the Holy Sepulcher, described amazing visions, however, at that time no one believed them.

Systematic observations of mirages arose from the moment ship logs began to be kept. In the summer of 1820, the captain of one of the whaling ships left notes and drawings in which he reflected a city with castles and temples allegedly seen near Greenland, but later a check of that very place did not confirm anything.

The scientific explanation of the mirage phenomenon is close to modern views - how optical illusion- was first given by the French mathematician Gaspard Monge, who in 1799, together with Napoleon, participated in his Egyptian campaign. During the long march to the Nile, the expedition members noticed a strange phenomenon, how the desert began to flood with water, and the villages began to turn into islands. Monge explained this phenomenon as best he could in order to calm the agitated Napoleonic soldiers.

Just about complex

Mirage (from French “visibility”) is a phenomenon that has not been thoroughly studied and is rather difficult to formulate in the language of optical physics. But let's try to give a simple explanation to the "anomalies of refraction". It is known that light in a homogeneous medium propagates in a straight line, but under conditions of different densities, its rays begin to refract, and the greater the difference in the density of neighboring media, the greater the distortion.

A good example is a spoon in a transparent glass of water: refraction just occurs at the junction of media of different densities - air and liquid, which creates the effect of a "broken" spoon. With mirages, we are dealing exclusively with an atmospheric phenomenon, which makes it possible to appear not just a distorted, but a reflected image. Heat spreads unevenly in the air environment, which enhances the contrast of the initially different air density. Layering also forms the absence of vertical movement of air masses. But to achieve the mirage effect, the difference in density must be so high that the boundary between the layers can act as a mirror. Rays of light that distort their movement at this boundary enable the cold layer to be reflected in the warm one.

Mirages lower, upper and side

In the desert or on an asphalt road, hot air, it would seem, contrary to the laws of physics, is concentrated near the ground. But in fact, it moves upward, driven by even hotter air from a hot surface - thus, a higher temperature is constantly maintained below.

This is an ideal condition for the formation of the so-called lower or lake mirages, when the surface of the earth seems to be flooded with water - but in reality is reflected by the sky. But mirages can show not only the sky, but also other objects located above the surface of the "mirror" - trees, cars, houses, mountains. This phenomenon can be observed from a distance of several hundred meters. But as soon as you want to get closer to the mysterious place, the angle of view changes, and the picture dissolves in the air.

Side mirages are very similar to the lower ones, only reflection occurs already near vertical surfaces - heated walls or rocks. A similar mirage was described by the French officer Lazar Pogu, who visited Tunisia. “Approaching the wall of the fort, made of sandstone, I suddenly noticed that it shone like a mirror and dusty palm trees and camels dragging our cannons on their humps were reflected in it.”

But an upper mirage is also possible, necessary condition for which is the movement of warmer layers of air upward. Its nature is more complicated than that of the inferior mirage. Without going into details, we note that an upper mirage is perceived by the eye from a distance of several kilometers or more. If the distorted rays of light coincide with the curvature of the Earth, then it becomes possible to observe objects that are far beyond the horizon line. Residents of the Cote d'Azur of France in the morning often see the chain of Corsican mountains, the distance to which is at least 200 kilometers!

Fata Morgana

According to legend, the rejected lover of Lancelot, Fairy Morgana, settled on seabed in the crystal palace and has been deceiving sailors with ghostly visions ever since. Optical Fata Morgana manages to deceive sailors just as well. Sometimes sailors rush to the aid of a sinking ship, and when they arrive at the place they find nothing, and this is not surprising, because the ship was in distress many kilometers from the visible place.

The condition for the emergence of Fata Morgana is the formation of several layers of air of different density. Objects transformed into a mirage, in this case, do not just get a mirror reflection, but create a semblance of a mosaic picture or a surreal landscape, with ships, buildings or entire cities “decaying” into fragments.

Such a rare phenomenon was seen by residents of the Chinese town of Penglai, which is located on the east coast of the Middle Kingdom. On May 8, 2006, thousands of citizens were surprised to find a city emerging from the fog with modern high-rise buildings, wide streets and cars moving along them. A person who first came to Penglai would never have guessed that where the city towered, the sea usually lapped.

But if the Chinese mirage can be explained by the presence of large cities in the vicinity, then what was seen in the mountains of Bashkiria is more difficult to squeeze into scientific concepts. One of the locals stopped his car to look at the blue-green sky, in which an airplane with double-decker wings first appeared, and then houses and streets began to emerge. Others noted that the roofs of houses and window openings were clearly visible, however, scientists say that Orenburg, located 200 kilometers to the south-west, appeared in this way.

Victims of illusion

Mirages can not only confuse a desperate traveler, but also destroy him. One of the most famous tragedies is connected with the death of a caravan in the Sahara, despite the fact that it was led by an experienced guide. Before reaching 350 kilometers to the oasis of Bir-Ula, the travelers fell into the net of a mirage, following which they deviated 60 kilometers from the saving well.

An interesting case, described in The New Yorker, no longer concerns a person, but an animal. The pelican, apparently flying for many hours over the sun-dried steppe of the Midwest, mistook the road for a flowing river and, hoping to plunge into a cool spring, dived at full speed onto the hot asphalt. The bird escaped with loss of consciousness.

But it turns out that a scientist can also become a victim of illusion. The British meteorologist Carolina Botley was picking flowers one of the August days, when she suddenly saw a rather massive figure near her - out of fright, the woman let go of the flowers, but what was her surprise that the "ghost" threw away the flowers. Carolina saw her own reflection in all the details and colors - as in a mirror. Such a phenomenon is rare and it is possible only on a hot morning, when vapors are still rising above the ground - they, together with the heated air, create favorable conditions for such a mirage.

Post Mirages: How They Arise appeared first on Clever.

If you have ever walked through the endless desert or hot asphalt on a hot summer day, then you probably noticed something like a puddle on the horizon. This phenomenon is called a mirage. It confuses entire caravans, gives empty hopes to wanderers and interferes with rescue operations. Today we will tell you why this natural illusion is formed.
People have met mirages in the distant past. The literature describes in sufficient detail the fact of the meeting of the soldiers of the crusaders with such an amazing phenomenon in the Palestinian desert. IN Ancient Egypt, for example, mirages were perceived as a kind of image of the past - something that existed many years ago.

What is a mirage?
Mirage is an optical phenomenon, which makes it unique and unpredictable. It is simple and complex. Simple mirages will be, for example, images of a water surface on a road or in fields, deserts, and complex ones will be a vision of fabulous structures frozen in the sky.
The researchers found that a mirage is an optical natural illusion that occurs due to the refraction of light rays between layers of air of different density and temperature. Objects that appear on the horizon do exist, but at a great distance from the point at which we see them. This is a kind of projection of the image, which occurs away from the original depicted object.

Mirage is often referred to as an "atmospheric mirror". In the mountains, for example, a person can meet his reflection. This phenomenon is formed due to the presence of stagnant water vapor in the atmosphere. Most often, a mirage is not found in deserts, as many believe, but on the contrary - in a cold climate.

There are many types of mirages:

• In the case of a "side" mirage, the air layers are shifted from a horizontal position to an "at an angle" position. Such a phenomenon can be seen at dawn, near the sea or other body of water. If we notice a real ship approaching the shore, a copy of it will appear next to it, moving in the opposite direction at the same speed.

• "Distant Mirage" - the famous ghost ship "Flying Dutchman". All sailors are afraid of this vision, as they consider it a bad sign. Such a mirage appears when the air is excessively heated from the ground, and then it rises and gradually cools. If during the ascent this layer meets with warmer layers, a phantom will appear.

• Fata Morgana is the most amazing and mystical kind of mirage. This is not just a projection of an object, but also its “copy”. As the distance changes, objects also become too distorted and take on a monstrous fantastic look. One day, French soldiers were moving through the desert. In the distance, they noticed a flock of flamingos, which followed one after another. At a time when the soldiers began to come closer, the birds turned into riders in white robes.

Where are mirages most common?
Scientists believe that a mirage can be found anywhere on our planet and even in the stratosphere. Cosmonaut Georgy Mikhailovich Grechko, while in space, took a photograph of an ice floe hovering in the air above the clouds.
But there are places where mirages occur more often than usual and for this you do not need to fly into space.
For example - Alaska is considered the most popular place for observing mirages. The explanation is very simple - the climate. The colder the air, the more distinct and clearer this natural phenomenon looks. In 1889, in the southeastern part of Alaska, one of the locals, walking near Mount Fairweather, saw the image of a huge city with skyscrapers, towers and temples. Although the source of the mirage was hundreds of kilometers from the peninsula.

A thousand tourists contemplated something similar in the city of Penglai, on the east coast of China. Due to heavy rains that lasted for several days, a very dense fog formed and subsequently formed a mirage with very high clarity. For four hours, the inhabitants of this city watched the illusory buildings, wide avenues filled with people and cars.
The inhabitants of France have repeatedly observed how on the horizon of the Mediterranean Sea, where it is no longer possible to distinguish water from the sky, the ridge of the Corsican Mountains rises from the sea surface, although the distance to the mainland is about two hundred kilometers.
Despite quite logical explanations from the point of view of physics, mirages remain something mystical and mysterious for us. And how much more nature is fraught with phenomena, the origin of which will remain a mystery to us.

Mirage (fr. mirage - literal visibility) - an optical phenomenon in the atmosphere: the reflection of light by the boundary between sharply different density layers of air. For an observer, such a reflection consists in the fact that, together with a distant object (or a section of the sky), its imaginary image, displaced relative to the object, is visible.

Mirage is an atmospheric phenomenon, due to which, under certain circumstances, objects are made visible in any area, the actual location of which is far from the place of their observation by the viewer. It is explained by the total reflection of rays at the boundary of two layers of air having different temperatures, if the beam of light falls with a very strong inclination on the boundary plane. If the viewer and a distant object are at only slightly elevated points, and between them lies sandy soil strongly heated by the sun, imparting its warmth to the nearest layers of air and thereby heating them more strongly than the layers located above, the viewer sees the object in its actual position through rays, directly from object going to it, and secondly, in an inverted position, with the help of rays, first coming from the object downward, then, when meeting with warmer and therefore rarer layers of air, which are reflected and go to the eye of the observer, who sees the object as if reflected in the water.

Gaspar Monge

This explanation was given by the French mathematician and geometer Gaspard Monge in "Mémoires de l" Institut d "Egypte". If a strongly heated warm layer is not at the bottom, but at the top of the observer and the observed object, which are in a denser cold layer, the Mirage phenomenon can also result, but only in the upward direction. Thus, observed in an inverted form above the horizon, for example, ships, towers, castles, etc., are images of real objects. In some localities, in Naples, Reggio, on the coast of the Sicilian Strait, on large sandy plains (in the morning, when the lower layers of the air are still colder than the upper ones, already warmed by the sun), in Persia, Turkestan, Egypt, this phenomenon, called fata morgana, is observed often. In the second case, such a refraction may occur, but the object seems only raised, but not inverted, and thus in the upper layers themselves there is no total reflection. In this form, this phenomenon is observed in the western parts of the Baltic Sea (Kimmung). In the attached Fig. 1 curve line L means the course of rays in the first case, when the lower layers of air are less dense than the upper ones; SS is the total reflection layer.

The observer at A receives from the object G, in addition to the direct image, the reflected image G1, which is observed in the direction of the tangent (to the line L) drawn from point A. Figure 2 represents the case when the colder and denser layers lie below.

By means of the rays L, going without reflection, the observer A receives an elevated standing image G1 of the object G, but if the rays are curved along the line L2 and completely reflected by the layer SS, then an inverted image G2 is obtained.

Encyclopedic Dictionary of F. A. Brockhaus and I. A. Efron. - St. Petersburg: Brockhaus-Efron. 1890-1907.

The ancient Egyptians believed that a mirage is the ghost of a country that no longer exists. The legend says that every place on Earth has its own soul. Mirages observed in deserts are explained by the fact that hot air acts like a mirror. This phenomenon is quite frequent - for example, about 160 thousand mirages are observed annually in the Sahara: they are stable and wandering, vertical and horizontal.

On May 8, 2006, thousands of tourists and locals observed a mirage that lasted for four hours at Penglai off China's east coast on Sunday. The mists created an image of the city, with modern high-rise buildings, wide city streets and noisy cars. It rained for two days in Penglai City before this rare weather event occurred.

It is almost impossible to study mirages, since they do not appear by order and are always original and unpredictable. According to scientists, the atmosphere is, as it were, a layered, air cake, which consists of layers with different temperatures. And the greater the temperature difference, the more the course of the light beam is bent. In this case, as if, a giant, airy lens is formed, which is constantly moving. In addition, the observed object and the person himself are inside this air lens. Therefore, the observer sees the image distorted. The more complex the shape of atmospheric lenses, the more bizarre the mirage.

Atmospheric mirages are divided into three classes: lower or lake; upper (they appear right in the sky) or distant vision mirages; side mirages. A more complex type of mirage is called Fata Morgana. No explanation has yet been found for it. It is customary to refer to the variety of mirages polar lights, werewolf mirages, "Flying Dutchmen".

Inferior (lake) mirage

Inferior mirages are quite common. For example, water seen on desert sand or hot asphalt is a mirage of the sky over hot sand or asphalt. Airplane landings in movies or car races on television are often filmed very close to the surface of hot asphalt. Then below the car or plane you can see their mirror image (inferior mirage), as well as a mirage of the sky.

Mirage over asphalt road

This is not a type of aircraft :). It's about the heat and the "reflection" from the asphalt. The planes seem to appear out of nowhere.

Inferior mirage. Reflection of the plane on the pavement

Mirage (mirror surface of water) in the Arabian Desert

If on a hot summer day you stand on a railway track or a hillock above it, when the sun is a little to the side or to the side and slightly ahead of the railway track, you can see how the rails, two or three kilometers away from us, seem to be plunging into a sparkling lake, as if the tracks were flooded flood. Let's try to get closer to the "lake" - it will move away, and no matter how much we walk towards it, it will invariably be 2-3 kilometers away from us. Such "lake" mirages drove the travelers of the desert to despair, languishing from the heat and thirst. They also saw the coveted water 2-3 kilometers away, wandered to it with all their might, but the water receded, and then it seemed to dissolve in the air.

The French scientist Gaspard Monge, who took part in the Egyptian campaign of Napoleon, describes his impressions of the lake mirage as follows: “When the surface of the earth is strongly heated by the Sun and is only just beginning to cool before the onset of twilight, the familiar terrain no longer extends to the horizon, as during the day, but passes, as it seems, about one league into a continuous flood. The villages farther away look like islands in a dead lake. Beneath each village is its overturned image, only it is not sharp, small details are not visible, like a reflection in the water, swayed by the wind. If you begin to approach a village that seems to be surrounded by a flood, the bank of imaginary water is moving away, the water branch that separated us from the village gradually narrows until it disappears completely, and the lake now begins behind this village, reflecting the villages located further.

Superior mirage or distant vision mirage

Watched over the cold earth's surface with an inversion temperature distribution (air temperature rises with altitude). Superior mirages are generally less common than inferior mirages, but are often more stable because cold air does not tend to move up and warm air does not tend to move down. Superior mirages are most common in the polar regions, especially on large flat ice floes with stable low temperatures. They are also observed in more temperate latitudes, although in these cases, they are weaker, less distinct and stable. An superior mirage can be upright or inverted, depending on the distance to the true object and the temperature gradient. Often the image appears as a fragmentary mosaic of upright and inverted parts.

Superior mirages can have a striking effect due to the curvature of the Earth. If the curvature of the rays is about the same as the curvature of the Earth, the light rays can travel long distances, causing the observer to see objects far beyond the horizon. This was observed and documented for the first time in 1596, when a ship under the command of Willem Barents, in search of the Northeast Passage, got stuck in the ice on Novaya Zemlya. The crew was forced to wait out the polar night. At the same time, the sunrise after the polar night was observed two weeks earlier than expected. In the 20th century, this phenomenon was explained and was called the "New Earth Effect".

In the same way, ships that are actually so far away that they should not be visible above the horizon can appear on the horizon, and even above the horizon, as superior mirages. This may explain some of the stories about flights of ships or coastal cities in the sky, as described by some polar explorers.

A ship of normal size is moving beyond the horizon. In the specific state of the atmosphere, its reflection above the horizon seems gigantic.

On a clear morning, the inhabitants of the Cote d'Azur of France have seen more than once how, on the horizon of the Mediterranean Sea, where water merges with the sky, a chain of the Corsican Mountains rises from the sea, to which about two hundred kilometers from the Cote d'Azur. In the same case, if the case takes place in the desert itself, the surface of which and the adjacent layers of air are heated by the sun, the air pressure at the top can be large, the rays will begin to bend in the other direction. And then already curious phenomena will occur with those rays that should have been reflected from the object, immediately buried in the ground. But no, they will turn up and, having passed the perigee somewhere near the very surface, will go into it. In Aristotle's Meteorology, characteristic example: the inhabitants of Syracuse sometimes saw the coast of continental Italy for several hours, although it was 150 km away. Similar phenomena are also caused by the redistribution of warm and cold layers of air, in the direction of the last segment of the path of the light beam.

On April 20, 1999, an ordinary freighter was practicing in the waters of the southwestern archipelago of Finland. The ship received many various forms; sometimes it seemed there were 2 ships, one of which was upside down.

House in the archipelago with an upper mirage

side mirage

The existence of a side mirage is usually not even suspected. This is a reflection from a heated sheer wall. Such a case is described by one French author. Approaching the fort of the fortress, he noticed that the even concrete wall of the fort suddenly shone like a mirror, reflecting the surrounding landscape, soil, sky. Taking a few more steps, he noticed the same change in the other wall of the fort. It seemed as if the gray uneven surface was suddenly replaced by a polished one. It was a hot day, and the walls must have become very hot, which was the key to their specularity. It turned out that a mirage is observed whenever the wall is heated enough by the sun's rays. I even managed to photograph this phenomenon.

This type of mirage can occur when layers of air of the same density are located in the atmosphere not horizontally, as usual, but obliquely or even vertically. Such conditions are created in the summer, in the morning shortly after sunrise near the rocky shores of the sea or lake, when the shore is already illuminated by the Sun, and the surface of the water and the air above it are still cold. Lateral mirages have been repeatedly observed on Lake Geneva. They saw a boat that was approaching the shore, and next to it, exactly the same boat was moving away from the shore.

The lateral (lateral) mirage, famous in its time, was observed in 1869 by Captain Caldway, who visited the coast of Greenland with an expedition on the ship "Germany"

Mirage Fata Morgana

Fata Morgana is a complex optical phenomenon in the atmosphere, consisting of several forms of mirages, in which distant objects are seen repeatedly and with various distortions. Fata Morgana occurs when several alternating layers of air of different densities form in the lower atmosphere, capable of producing mirror reflections. As a result of reflection, as well as refraction of rays, real-life objects give several distorted images on the horizon or above it, partially overlapping each other and rapidly changing in time, which creates a bizarre picture of Fata Morgana.

On April 3, 1900, the defenders of the fortress of Bloemfontein, in England, saw the battle formations of the British army in the sky, moreover, so clearly that one could distinguish the buttons on the red uniforms of the officers. This was taken as a bad omen. The fort surrendered two days later.

In 1902, Robert Wood, an American scientist who not without reason earned the nickname "the magician of the physical laboratory," photographed two boys peacefully wading through the waters of the Chesapeake Bay between yachts. Moreover, the height of the boys in the photograph exceeded 3 meters.

One person in 1852 from a distance of 4 km saw the Strasbourg bell tower at a distance, as it seemed to him, of two kilometers. The image was gigantic, as if the bell tower appeared before him increased 20 times.

Numerous "Flying Dutchmen", which are still seen by sailors, can also be attributed to the Fata Morgans. In March 1898, at night, the crew of the Bremen ship "Matador" during the passage through the southern part Pacific Ocean I saw a strange haze. A ship jumped out of it and rushed straight to the Matador. Then it disappeared somewhere. On the seventh flask of the night, that is to say, half an hour before midnight, the ship reappeared on the leeward side, fighting the storm. It was very strange, because around the "Matador" the water was completely calm. But the sailboat seen from the "Matador" was flooded with frantic waves, rolling over it. The captain of the "Matador" Gerkins, despite the complete calm, ordered to reef all the sails, fearing that the unknown sailboat would bring the wind with it ... Meanwhile, the sailboat approached. His waves carried directly to the "Matador". And suddenly the ship flew into southbound, taking with it a mysterious storm, and on the "Matador" suddenly went out bright light in the captain's cabin, which everyone saw through two windows until the mysterious ship disappeared. Later they learned that on the same night, during a severe storm, a lamp exploded in the captain's cabin of another ship. When the time and degrees of longitude of the two ships were compared, it turned out that the distance between the Matador and the other - Danish - ship at the time of the appearance of the mirage was about 1700 km.

At 11 am on December 10, 1941, the team of the British transport "Vendor", located in the Maldives, noticed a burning ship on the horizon. "Vendor" went to the rescue of those in distress, but an hour later the burning ship fell on its side and sank. "Vendor" approached the alleged place of the death of the ship, but, despite a thorough search, not only did not find any debris, but even stains of fuel oil. At the port of destination, in India, the commander of the "Vendor" learned that at the very moment when his team was watching the tragedy, a cruiser was sinking, attacked by Japanese torpedo bombers near Ceylon. The distance between the ships at that time was 900 km.

One of the possible explanations, as well as the origin of the name "Flying Dutchman", is associated with the phenomenon of Fata Morgana, since the mirage is always visible above the surface of the water. It is also possible that the luminous halo is the fires of St. Elmo. For the sailors, their appearance promised hope for success, and in times of danger - for salvation. At present, methods have been developed that make it possible to obtain a similar discharge artificially.

Fata Morgana

This image shows how the outlines of the two ships change under the influence of the Fata Morgana. The four photos in the right column show the first ship, and the four photos in the left column show the second.

A chain of changing mirages.

The mirage got its name in honor of the fairy-tale heroine Fata Morgana, or, translated from Italian, Fairy Morgana. They say that she is the half-sister of King Arthur, the rejected beloved of Lancelot, settled out of chagrin at the bottom of the sea, in the crystal palace, and since then she has been deceiving sailors with ghostly visions.

Morgan the Fairy, painting by E. F. Sandys, 1864, Birmingham Art Gallery

Morgana (Morgana le Fay), who is portrayed solely as an evil force, schemed against Arthur to steal his talisman - the sword Excalibur, in order to overthrow him in some way. At the same time, she served him well: when Arthur was mortally wounded at the Battle of Camlin, she was one of the four queens who persuaded Arthur to leave for the Isle of Avalon, where she used her magic to save her brother's life. Sometimes she is described as a goddess, but in fact the image of Morgana is composite and comes from various Celtic myths and deities. In Welsh folklore, she was attributed to the fairies of the lake, who seduce and then abandon people in love with them; in Irish folklore, she lived in a magical mound, from where she flew out in frightening outfits and frightened people. In English and Scottish folklore, Morgana lives either in Avalon or in various castles, including one near Edinburgh, which was inhabited by a pack of evil fairies. She is also considered one of the sea maidens of the coast of Brittany, who are called the Morgans, Mary Morgan or simply Morgan. These sirens lure sailors. Depending on the story, the sailor either goes to his death or is transported to a blessed underwater paradise. In Italy, mirages over the Strato of Messina are still called the Morgana Faerie. Sometimes Morgana is portrayed as an evil decrepit old woman, as in the stories of Sir Lancelot, the lake and Gawain and the Green Knight. However, she is not the "Lady of the Lake" in the Arthurian legends. According to stories, Morgana had an insatiable sexual appetite and constantly lured knights to satisfy her passion. As Marion Bradley, the occult novelist, has pointed out, Morgana the Fairy was a Lady of the Lake girl, a druid priestess who studied dragon magic at a druid priestess college.

volumetric mirage

In the mountains, it is very rare, under certain conditions, that you can see the “distorted self” at a fairly close distance. This phenomenon is explained by the presence of "stagnant" water vapor in the air.

auroras

The distant cold Alaska has long been recognized as the champion of mirages. The stronger the cold, the clearer and more beautiful visions appear in her sky. It was only in the 19th century that they began to constantly record the appearance of mirages in those parts. A special scientific society has now been set up in Alaska to study natural optical phenomena. And tourists are taken on buses to admire how mountains rise right out of the abyss on a flat ocean horizon, and then they disappear to no one knows where.

Ghost Mirages

The French colonial detachment crossed the Algerian desert. Ahead, about six kilometers from him, a flock of flamingos walked in single file. But when the birds crossed the border of the mirage, their legs stretched out and flaked, instead of two, each had four. Give or take - an Arab rider in a white robe.
The commander of the detachment, alarmed, sent a scout to check what kind of people were in the desert. When the soldier himself penetrated into the zone of distortion of the sun's rays, he, of course, figured out who he was dealing with. But he also caught fear in his comrades - the legs of his horse became so long that it seemed that he was sitting on a fantastic monster.

Other visions baffle us even today. The Swedish polar explorer Nordenskiöld has repeatedly observed werewolves in the Arctic: "Once upon a time, a bear, whose approach was expected and which everyone saw well, instead of approaching with its usual soft gait, zigzags and sniffing the air, wondering if foreigners were good for him to eat, just at the moment of the sniper's sight ... he spread his gigantic wings and flew away in the form of a small green gull.Another time, during the same sledge campaign, the hunters, being in a tent spread out for rest, heard the cry of a cook fussing around her: “Bear, big bear! No - a deer, a very small deer. "At the same instant, a shot rang out from the tent, and the killed" bear-deer" turned out to be a small fox, who paid with his life for the honor of portraying a large beast for several moments."

It is authentically known about mirages-ghosts. Here is how the British meteorologist Caroline Botley describes this effect: “Mirages lead to victims, but the physical explanation of the phenomenon of mirages does not at all alleviate the fate of travelers who have been misled by an ephemeral oasis. In order to protect people brought into the desert from the risk of getting lost and dying of thirst, special maps are drawn up with a mark of places where mirages are usually observed. These guides indicate where wells can be seen, and where palm groves and even mountain ranges.