What is a "mirage".

I think we all know what a "mirage." But here are some interesting facts about this phenomenon is not exactly known to all of you. Read.

Mirages are several types: lake, or lower; top (they occur directly in the sky) or mirages distance vision; side mirages.
A more complex type of mirage called "Fata Morgana»





Lower (Ozerny) mirage. Inferior mirages occur mainly in cases where the layers of air near the surface of the Earth (for example, in the desert) warmed up so that the rays of light emanating from objects, strongly curved.



The victims are often mirages especially caravans in the desert Erg al-Rawi in northern Africa. Before people "personally" at a distance of 2-3 kilometers appear oases, to which in fact no less than 700 kilometers



Upper mirage (mirage far vision)

The air is heated by the Earth's surface, and with the height of its temperature drops. However, if over a layer of cool air is warmer (brought by, for example, southern winds) and rarefied air layer, and the transition between them is quite sharp, the refraction is greatly enhanced. Rays of light coming from the objects in the world, describe the similarity of the arc and back down, sometimes for tens, even hundreds of kilometers from its source. Then there is "raising the horizon," or upper mirage.



Residents of the French Riviera on a clear morning is not seen on the horizon of the Mediterranean Sea, where the water is drained from the sky, from the sea rises a chain of Corsican mountains, to which the Côte d'Azur about two hundred kilometers.



Fata Morgana - a complex optical phenomena in the atmosphere, which consists of several forms of mirages, in which distant objects are seen repeatedly and with a variety of distortions. To do this, the most mysterious kind of mirage convincing explanation has yet been found. But, there are many theories.







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