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Diagram showing displacement of the Sun's image at sunrise and sunset Comparison of inferior and superior mirages due to differing air refractive indices, n. Atmospheric refraction is the deviation of light or other electromagnetic wave from a straight line as it passes through the atmosphere due to the variation in air density as a function of height. [1]
Looming of the Canadian coast as seen from Rochester, New York, on April 16, 1871. Looming is the most noticeable and most often observed of these refraction phenomena. It is an abnormally large refraction of the object that increases the apparent elevation of the distant objects and sometimes allows an observer to see objects that are located below the horizon under normal conditions.
Atmospheric optics is "the study of the optical characteristics of the atmosphere or products of atmospheric processes .... [including] temporal and spatial resolutions beyond those discernible with the naked eye". [1] Meteorological optics is "that part of atmospheric optics concerned with the study of patterns observable with the naked eye". [2]
These are examples of so-called Arctic mirages, or hillingar in Icelandic. Illustration in a 1872 book to describe a mirage If the vertical temperature gradient is +12.9 °C (23.2 °F) per 100 meters/330 feet (where the positive sign means the temperature increases at higher altitudes) then horizontal light rays will just follow the curvature ...
Atmospheric optical phenomena are often due to the interaction of light from the sun or moon with the atmosphere, clouds, water, or dust and other particulates. Subcategories This category has the following 6 subcategories, out of 6 total.
Various arcs, halos and sun dogs. In atmospheric optics, a photometeor is a bright object or other optical phenomenon appearing in the Earth's atmosphere when sunlight or moonlight creates a reflection, refraction, diffraction or interference under particular circumstances.
Radio propagation is the behavior of radio waves as they travel, or are propagated, from one point to another in vacuum, or into various parts of the atmosphere. [1]: 26‑1 As a form of electromagnetic radiation, like light waves, radio waves are affected by the phenomena of reflection, refraction, diffraction, absorption, polarization, and scattering. [2]
For example, air has a refractive index of 1.0002793 at atmospheric pressure, where there are about 2 × 10 25 molecules per cubic meter, and therefore the major constituent of the atmosphere, nitrogen, has a Rayleigh cross section of 5.1 × 10 −31 m 2 at a wavelength of 532 nm (green light). [14]