The Fata Morgana Mirage Explained
A Fata Morgana is a complex mirage in a narrow band above the horizon. Sailors see double. Warm air over colder dense air forms an atmospheric duct.
What the video says
A Fata Morgana is a complex mirage in a narrow band above the horizon. Sailors see double.
Warm air over colder dense air forms an atmospheric duct. This duct bends light rays like a refracting lens.
Thermal inversion alone cannot produce this mirage. An atmospheric duct must be present first. Ducts do not build themselves.
Gabriel and Tobias Gruber observed Fata Morgana above Lake Cerknica. They first studied it in a laboratory.
The term translates from Morgan le Fay of Arthurian legend. Medieval stories described her conjuring fairy castles.
A mirage sequence captures the Farallon Islands from San Francisco.
In 1818 Sir John Ross saw mountains blocking Lancaster Sound. A whole mountain range, just for him.
William Edward Parry sailed through that spot in 1819. The Croker Mountains were simply a mirage. Ross could not obtain government ships.