What to know about this ‘threatening’ ship

The cover photo of the floating ship caught everyone’s attention because it looks like this large cargo ship is simply floating above the water. What you see is not just a mirage, but a superior mirage.

We all know an inferior mirage that creates an oasis in the desert. Both inferior and superior air mirrors involve air temperatures and refracted (ie bent) sunlight.

The inferior air reflection occurs when very hot air is at the surface, with colder air above it. The sun’s rays are bent by the warmer sky and your eye ‘sees’ an apparent image, which is really just a reflection of the sky above.

Here’s a picture with ‘water’ that appears to be on the hot road, but it’s not really – it’s just the sky above.

You would think around here with our hot sidewalk, we would see A LOT of this in the summer!

A superior air reflection occurs when there is colder air at the surface and hot air above it. The light is bent upwards instead of downwards, so that the mirage takes place above the ground rather than on the surface:

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If the object of a superior mirror is within your line of sight, or on / above the horizon, the object will look upside down.

However, if the object is below the horizon, it will appear upright. This is called a “threatening” mirage:

Getting such an amazing photo is actually rarer than self-images. In fact, the sun itself causes a mirage every day during sunset and sunrise – if you see the full sun sitting on the horizon, it is completely or partially below the horizon. The light bends so through the atmosphere to make the sun look full. You can investigate the phenomenon more here.

Nice week. The next few days we have some hot changes!

Frank

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