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Thread: The weirdest mirage you'll ever see: a ship floating high in the air

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    UK Avalon Founder Bill Ryan's Avatar
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    Default The weirdest mirage you'll ever see: a ship floating high in the air


    Walker 'stunned' to see ship hovering high above sea off Cornwall

    David Morris encounters rare optical illusion known as superior mirage while out on coastal stroll


    There are only so many polite words that come to mind when one spots a ship apparently hovering above the ocean during a stroll along the English coastline.

    David Morris, who captured the extraordinary sight on camera, declared himself “stunned” when he noticed a giant tanker floating above the water as he looked out to sea from a hamlet near Falmouth in Cornwall, SW England.

    The effect is an example of an optical illusion known as a superior mirage. Such illusions are reasonably common in the Arctic but can also happen in UK winters when the atmospheric conditions are right, though they are very rare.

    The illusion is caused by a meteorological phenomenon called a temperature inversion. Normally, the air temperature drops with increasing altitude, making mountaintops colder than the foothills. But in a temperature inversion, warm air sits on top of a band of colder air, playing havoc with our visual perception. The inversion in Cornwall was caused by chilly air lying over the relatively cold sea with warmer air above.



    Because cold air is denser than warm air, it has a higher refractive index. In the case of the “hovering ship”, this means light rays coming from the ship are bent downwards as it passes through the colder air, to observers on the shoreline. This makes the ship appear in a higher position than it really is – in this instance, above the sea surface.

    “Superior mirages occur because of the weather condition known as a temperature inversion, where cold air lies close to the sea with warmer air above it,” said David Braine, a BBC meteorologist. “Since cold air is denser than warm air, it bends light towards the eyes of someone standing on the ground or on the coast, changing how a distant object appears.”

    Photographers around the world have captured striking images of ships, yachts and other vessels apparently hovering in mid-air thanks to superior mirages. One potential clue that the sight is a mirage is the lack of any detail below the vessel’s waterline – for example a mirage of a “hovering” yacht lacked the lower hull and keel.

    The latter effect is well known to sailors who can sometimes rely on refraction to spot ships that are geometrically beyond the horizon. Sailors say such ships are “looming” over the horizon and sometimes report distortions that stretch or compress the images, making them “towering” or “stooping” mirages, respectively.

    More familiar optical illusions are the “inferior mirages” that give rise to apparent oases in the desert and puddles on hot summer roads. These mirages happen when cooler air sits on a layer of hot air, directly above a road, for example. When sunlight coming down from the sky approaches the air near the hot surface, it is bent back upwards to the observer’s eye, making the sky appear to be reflected on the road.

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    Canada Avalon Member DeDukshyn's Avatar
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    Default Re: The weirdest mirage you'll ever see: a ship floating high in the air

    When you are one step ahead of the crowd, you are a genius.
    Two steps ahead, and you are deemed a crackpot.

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    Canada Avalon Member Ernie Nemeth's Avatar
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    Default Re: The weirdest mirage you'll ever see: a ship floating high in the air

    What keeps the light coherent? You'd think it would at least be fuzzy...
    Empty your mind, be formless, shapeless — like water...Now water can flow or it can crash. Be water, my friend. Bruce Lee

    Free will can only be as free as the mind that conceives it.

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    Canada Avalon Member DeDukshyn's Avatar
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    Default Re: The weirdest mirage you'll ever see: a ship floating high in the air

    Quote Posted by Ernie Nemeth (here)
    What keeps the light coherent? You'd think it would at least be fuzzy...
    I searched a bunch of photos of this phenomenon, and the only one besides Bill's that was perfectly coherent was that sailboat. No other examples that I saw, were. So I assume its just a matter of everything just happening to be 100% perfect and being at the exact right location at the right time.
    When you are one step ahead of the crowd, you are a genius.
    Two steps ahead, and you are deemed a crackpot.

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    Default Re: The weirdest mirage you'll ever see: a ship floating high in the air

    Recently, somewhere on this Forum I believe, there were photos and maybe a video of a city (many buildings) that appeared to be floating above the water, just as these ships appear to be. This mirage was explained basically in the same manner as these ships.

    I’ve personally experienced a similar mirage many times while driving. (I wager most of us have. Especially in warmer weather.) A mirage of “water” appears on the road ahead of your car and, if cars are ahead of you in the right spot, they appear to be floating above the road.

    Kewl stuff.

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    Default Re: The weirdest mirage you'll ever see: a ship floating high in the air

    I saw one sailboat once in the cost of Portugal, it was more or less as the DeDukshyn sailboat picture, at the time we were watching the sea from the sand, and there was lots of people that saw the same thing, I remember one fisherman saying that the water and the sky blend into same color in the horizon, then the sailboat seems to be floating in the sky, he also said he saw it many times, not only from the sand standpoint, but from the water as well. It is a common thing I guess, because the fisherman was not surprised at all.
    But Bill's picture is crystal clear, never seen anything like that before, the one I saw was kind of blurred.

    Who never had the experience driving in the highway in a sunny day, when the tarmac gets really hot, the air above the tarmac will also heat up, then refraction play its game, refraction index decrease with heat, that's why blurred or distorted images shows up in the horizon.


    Here some more mirages
    --
    A chaos to the sense, a Kosmos to the reason.

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    Default Re: The weirdest mirage you'll ever see: a ship floating high in the air

    Quote Posted by Satori (here)
    Recently, somewhere on this Forum I believe, there were photos and maybe a video of a city (many buildings) that appeared to be floating above the water, just as these ships appear to be. This mirage was explained basically in the same manner as these ships.

    I’ve personally experienced a similar mirage many times while driving. (I wager most of us have. Especially in warmer weather.) A mirage of “water” appears on the road ahead of your car and, if cars are ahead of you in the right spot, they appear to be floating above the road.

    Kewl stuff.
    On China i believe this the one



    Quote China's Floating City and The Science of Mirages
    The atmosphere can play fascinating tricks on our brains. A "superior mirage" may even be behind the myth of the Flying Dutchman.
    https://www.nationalgeographic.com/s...her-atmosphere
    Tired

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    Default Re: The weirdest mirage you'll ever see: a ship floating high in the air

    A question about mirage I have not seen raised before: Since light travels in both directions, shouldn't the people in the mirage see you too? As a mirage?
    Last edited by syrwong; 6th March 2021 at 13:42.

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    Lightbulb Re: The weirdest mirage you'll ever see: a ship floating high in the air

    Finally Star Wars has arrived in our dimension/timeline ... or it could be Secret "US Space Force Test"

    cheers,
    John
    Last edited by ExomatrixTV; 6th March 2021 at 16:21.
    No need to follow anyone, only consider broadening (y)our horizon of possibilities ...

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    Default Re: The weirdest mirage you'll ever see: a ship floating high in the air

    Quote Posted by DeDukshyn (here)
    I think this is the same boat.

    The effect is known as Fata Morgana.


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    Default Re: The weirdest mirage you'll ever see: a ship floating high in the air

    Quote Posted by pueblo (here)
    Quote Posted by DeDukshyn (here)
    I think this is the same boat.

    The effect is known as Fata Morgana.

    Interestingly, the fata morgana has no effect on the bird, which flies right under the yacht - this used to be called keelhauling
    Last edited by araucaria; 6th March 2021 at 19:57.


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    Default Re: The weirdest mirage you'll ever see: a ship floating high in the air

    A newer whole floating City in the clouds in China.
    On September 11, 2020, photos and videos spread virally through Chinese media channels and social networks, in which you can see another ghost town that has risen from oblivion, which is somewhat reminiscent of an educational institution for magicians from the famous cycle of stories about Harry Potter. According to media reports, a ghostly image of what looked like Harry Potter College was spotted this morning over modern buildings in Jinan, the capital of eastern China's Shandong province.




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    Default Re: The weirdest mirage you'll ever see: a ship floating high in the air




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    Default Re: The weirdest mirage you'll ever see: a ship floating high in the air

    Another one!



    ALSO photographed off the coast of Cornwall, by Dave Medlock, last weekend — just days later.

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