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Absorption of light in water. The refractive index of water at 20 °C for visible light is 1.33. [1] The refractive index of normal ice is 1.31 (from List of refractive indices). In general, an index of refraction is a complex number with real and imaginary parts, where the latter indicates the strength of absorption loss at a particular ...
Young [6] [11] distinguished several regions where different methods for calculating astronomical refraction were applicable. In the upper portion of the sky, with a zenith distance of less than 70° (or an altitude over 20°), various simple refraction formulas based on the index of refraction (and hence on the temperature, pressure, and humidity) at the observer are adequate.
Water at the top of the troposphere, particularly in liquid and solid states, cools as it emits net photons to space. Neighboring gas molecules other than water (e.g. nitrogen) are cooled by passing their heat kinetically to the water. This is why temperatures at the top of the troposphere (known as the tropopause) are about -50 degrees Celsius.
Standard refractive index measurements are taken at the "yellow doublet" sodium D line, with a wavelength (λ) of 589 nanometers. There are also weaker dependencies on temperature , pressure / stress , etc., as well on precise material compositions (presence of dopants , etc.); for many materials and typical conditions, however, these ...
Refraction of light at the interface between two media of different refractive indices, with n 2 > n 1.Since the phase velocity is lower in the second medium (v 2 < v 1), the angle of refraction θ 2 is less than the angle of incidence θ 1; that is, the ray in the higher-index medium is closer to the normal.
This optical phenomenon occurs because rays of light are strongly bent when they pass through air layers of different temperatures in a steep thermal inversion where an atmospheric duct has formed. [39] A thermal inversion is an atmospheric condition where warmer air exists in a well-defined layer above a layer of significantly cooler air.
Refraction also occurs in oceans when light passes into the halocline where salinity has impacted the density of the water column. For lenses (such as eye glasses), a lens made from a high refractive index material will be thinner, and hence lighter, than a conventional lens with a lower refractive index. Such lenses are generally more ...
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.