How is a mirage formed?

Mirage is the most amazing natural wonder since ancient times. Whoever sees it will be fascinated by it.

Modern people all know that the reason for this phenomenon is the refraction of air. The most obvious example in the desert is the illusory oasis. In fact, in the summer metropolis, close to the hot asphalt pavement, you will also see an oasis belonging to the urban jungle in the distance. Although the reflection produced by cold air is different from that produced by hot air, we can only see a mirage if there are actual objects to provide refraction. However, in some eyewitness reports in China in recent years, we found that the scenes were unknown, but vivid, which surprised the viewers.

Let's look at the differences between Chinese and foreign records of mirage.

China's article

Mirages outside the county are rare in inland cities. In addition to Harbin, Chengdu, Wu Yinshan, Dali, Yunnan and Xi have also been reported.

1At 7: 30 pm to 8: 45 pm on June 3, 998, a rare mirage appeared over the northern part of Chengdu, Sichuan. In the magnificent and bright light belt, the clouds are lingering and shadowy, and the mountains and lakes are faintly visible, which makes the witnesses amazed. On that day, it rained in Chengdu and the temperature dropped significantly. By 7 pm, after the rain,

The gloomy sky gradually became clear. At 7: 30, a faint band of light appeared in the sky north of the city. At 8 o'clock sharp, the light from the northwest stretches for several kilometers to the east, and towering, steep and magnificent mountains, swaying trees and lakes are faintly visible in the clouds. As time goes on, the sky is getting darker and darker, and the wonderful scene in the air begins to fade away. By 8: 45, there was only a thin strip of light left in the air.

In addition, Wuyin Mountain appeared frequently in Weishan Yi and Hui Autonomous Prefecture, Dali Prefecture, Yunnan Province around September 17, 2000? Phantom? These wonders feast the eyes of tourists and locals. ? Phantom? What do the locals call it? Five seals of light? . Among them? Buddha's light is auspicious? 、? Is it Rui now? 、? Yu Yu? These three scenes are the strangest.

Mirage in desert and ocean is a wonder, especially in Xi 'an on the Loess Plateau. On August 8, 2000 19: 30, a magnificent mirage appeared in the northwest of Xi 'an. Looking to the northwest, the sunset glowed red, colorful clouds spread from north to west in mid-air, and farmhouses, trees and tall buildings were faintly visible. This spectacular scene lasted about 40 minutes. According to an old man who has lived in Xi 'an for more than 30 years, this is the first time he has seen such a spectacle. Mirages often appear on the coast, so people at the seaside are relatively lucky to see the charm of mirages. Mirages have appeared in coastal areas in recent years: Lianyungang (1August 1999), Weihai (April 2000), Shanghai (July 2000), Qingdao (July 2000) and Rizhao (165438+2000/kloc).

Hong Kong (March 2000), etc. The longest one appeared in Shenquan Port, which lasted more than five hours, and it was also a mirage in local history.

The longest time. At about noon on March 4, 2000 12, a mirage in fairyland began to appear in the northwest of Shenquan, Hong Kong, Macao and Jiaowan in Huilai County, Jieyang City, Guangdong Province.

The villagers of Shenquan Port, who always make a living by fishing, quickly told each other. At that time, villagers of all ages gathered on the beach of Aojiao Bay, and the scene was lively, which woke up Boss Huang who was sleeping in Snoely. When Boss Huang saw that the mirage on the sea had not disappeared for more than an hour, he quickly informed a friend by mobile phone, and the friend informed Lin Xibin, honorary president of Huilai County Photographers Association, to come with a camera and a video camera. Mr. Lin, who was almost puzzled, was still unable to restrain his excitement when interviewed by reporters afterwards: I am so lucky! This world may be the first time I photographed a mirage. Mr. Lin first opened the reporter's eyes to a four-minute video. The scene on the screen makes people lament the magic of nature: a mirage appears at the junction of the sea and the sky in the western waters of Shenquan Port. Illusion is a strip-shaped thing that appears and disappears, moves left and right, and constantly combines. There are tall buildings, tall chimneys and towering towers, but most of them are long mountains and trees. Once the illusion disappears, it always sinks into the sea slowly, then rises from the sea, then changes, combines and moves left and right. Finally, the rolling mountains sank into the sea without a trace, leaving only an empty sea. Lin Xibin then showed the reporter his photo enlarged to 62 cm wide. The picture in the photo takes the rocks and waves by the sea as the fixed foreground, and mountains, trees and towering buildings emerge on the endless horizon. In fact, Mr. Lin Xibin of Guangdong Huilai Line is not the first person to shoot a mirage with a camera. As early as June 1988, a reporter from Yantai, Shandong Province.

Sun Yuping recorded her hair with a camera? Born in Dengzhou, Shandong Province, Haicheng is a wonder. According to Gao Ying, an old scholar who has observed and studied the Dengzhou Sea for more than 30 years, "Sun Yuping has photographed the rarest, best and best maritime wonders for more than 30 years. As far as I know, there is nothing better than this. In a scientific way, he filled a gap in the world. " China CCTV once pointed out in the program: "This is the first time that China has photographed a mirage with a camera, and this is also the first time in the world." Reporter Sun Yuping wrote in "I Photographed in Zhangzhou Haicheng":1June, 1988 17 At 2: 20 pm, I found a gray light band floating at the junction of the sky and the sea in Penglai Shuicheng East Fort. I immediately quit Shuicheng and ran to the seaside. The original scenery on the sea disappeared and the original scenery appeared. Willy-nilly, I set up a camera on the spot and quickly pushed it to Hiroshima Bay. I saw a "pyramid" standing head-on at the junction of the sea and the sky, which the locals had never seen before. With the development of atmospheric refraction into total reflection, there is an inverted pyramid with similar shape and size above each pyramid, which is dark as a huge pier of reinforced concrete. The upper part of the pier is gradually unfolded and the waist is gradually tightened. After a while, the pier became I-shaped again. With the change of mirage, I-beams extend horizontally from top to bottom, and many I-beams are connected into a whole, forming a huge porous long bridge. When I moved the camera to the southern sea, another scene appeared in the viewer: something similar to a double tower appeared on the sea. I saw that the upper platform was big and small, flickering, and seemed to be connected with the lower platform, looming. Not far from the right side of the balcony, there is a single-span arch bridge, one end of which is built on the hillside and the other end extends into the sea. The bridge deck often flies in the air, and the shape of the bridge resembles the Yuezhou Bridge. I slowly turned on the camera, and it looked like a quiet' lake'. Less than a minute later, when I pushed the camera close to the single-span arch bridge, the suspended bridge deck changed from wide to narrow, slowly broke, melted and disappeared. Only a broken pier stands alone in the water. After a while, I found an' ancient castle' from the sea. In this group of buildings, two tall buildings stand on the right, which look like ancient city walls on the pass. In the middle is a flat clearing, like a tinker for ancient training, and a tall tree stands in the middle of the clearing. The left side of the complex looks like a two-story pavilion. At first, a cloud drifted slowly from left to right, and the upper layer of the pavilion extended to the right, connecting with the big tree in the center of the clearing, forming a huge pavilion. Soon the clouds subsided, and the big tree in the center of the clearing became a bare flagpole, and there seemed to be a figure shaking under the flagpole. At five o'clock, two high mountains suddenly appeared in the eastern part of Long Island, which were surprisingly large and rising. One of the mountains, said the local people present, is usually invisible. It looks like the old iron mountain in Dalian, hidden under the horizon hundreds of miles away. At 7 o'clock, the mirage disappeared from the sea-sky junction like sinking to the bottom of the sea, and everything returned to normal. At about 8: 40 am on June/Kloc-0, 2006, a mirage appeared in the air to the west of Liang Heng Town, Liuhe County, Nanjing, attracting hundreds of local people to stop and watch.

"Mirage" is like a square mountain, which suddenly rises from the horizon, and moves slowly along the Tong Ning Highway like a entrenched dragon. The whole scene is clearly discernible, just like a fairyland, picturesque peaks, misty mountains, lush trees, a temple and multi-step steps halfway up the mountain, which are hidden from time to time ... Resident Zhou Ping was one of the first people to see this spectacle, when she was on her way. But she's not in the west. Looking closely, she couldn't believe her eyes, because she had never seen such an illusory but clear spectacle before her eyes. When she was excited, she exclaimed loudly and ran to town, hoping to feast her eyes on her family. At 9 o'clock in the morning, the mirage gradually subsided and lasted for more than 20 minutes. Experts from Nanjing Purple Mountain Observatory believe that the weather has changed a lot recently, with sunny days and rainy days, which is the main reason for the mirage. Foreign articles

In the Guinness Book of World Records, the highest mirage occurred on July 1939 at an altitude of 550 kilometers.

In Iceland.

1894 On August18, the citizens of Buffalo, new york, USA actually saw the buildings and ports in Toronto, Canada, which is 180 kilometers away.

A steamboat sailing between Rochester and Toronto also witnessed this spectacle. However, a mirage in nature is hard to see. A mirage is not as simple as people think. What is the secret? Phantom is a mirage for short. According to the principle of physics, a mirage is because different air layers have different densities, and the refractive index of light in air with different densities is different. That is, because the density between warm air on the sea surface and cold air in the high air is different, it refracts light. Mirages are closely related to the geographical location, geophysical conditions and meteorological characteristics of those places at a specific time. The abnormal distribution of temperature is the meteorological condition for the formation of most mirage. From a map showing the geographical distribution of mirage in the world, we find that the cities where mirage often appears are basically coastal cities. Generally speaking, when it comes to Haicheng, we will only think of what has appeared on the sea. In fact, not only at sea, but also on roads and deserts, there will be mirage.

All kinds of visions-

Mirage on the sea in summer, on the calm sea, overlooking the distance, sometimes you can see peaks, ships, towers, pavilions, markets, temples and so on. Appear in the distant sky. The ancients didn't understand the reason of this scene, and made an unscientific explanation for it. They thought it was formed by the gas exhaled by dragons (that is, dragons) in the sea, so it was called "mirage", which was produced by the total reflection of light when it spread in the air with uneven density distribution. In summer, the lower air on the sea surface has lower temperature, higher density and higher refractive index than the upper air. We can regard the air on the sea surface as composed of many horizontal gas layers with different refractive indices. When the light emitted by distant peaks, ships, buildings and people shoots into the air, it deviates from the normal direction more and more because of continuous refraction, and the incident angle of entering the high altitude increases continuously, resulting in total reflection and light reflecting back to the ground. When people look against the light, they will see distant scenery hanging in the air. Mirages in the desert can also be seen in the desert. When the sun shines on the sand, the density of the hot air layer near the sand surface is low, and the refractive index is smaller than that of the upper air. The light from a distant object to the ground is refracted when it enters the hot air layer with a small refractive index, and the incident angle gradually increases, or total reflection occurs. When people look at the reflected light, they will see the reflection of distant objects, as if they were reflected from the water. Pedestrians in the desert are often confused by this scene, thinking that there is water ahead and running forward, but it is always beyond their reach. A mirage on the asphalt road

The above phenomenon can sometimes be seen on the asphalt road in hot summer. The air layer near the hot road surface is the same as that near the hot sand surface, and its refractive index is smaller than that of the upper air. Light emitted from distant objects to the road surface may also be totally reflected. From a distance, the road surface looks particularly smooth, just like being drenched by water. -Experts say-

Qinyang Meteorological Bureau staff:

Statement 1: Mirage wonders appear repeatedly in the same area, which is closely related to local air humidity and temperature.

Mirages appear repeatedly in the same area in a very short time, which is closely related to the local air humidity and temperature. Recently, there has been more rain and moderate humidity in this area, especially on sunny days after rain and snow, the air humidity is higher than usual, forming a warm and humid airflow on the mountain surface. In this particular climate, the outline of Taihang Mountain is refracted in the air, forming a mirage. Gao Ying (Expert):

Statement 2: Sun Yuping ended the mirage history with only written records but no video records.

The mirage photographed by Sun Yuping has attracted great attention from relevant parties, and then an expert seminar on mirage was held in Jinan. After careful analysis and research, experts agreed that Sun Yuping was shooting a typical mirage.

Sun Yuping not only realized his childhood dream, but more importantly, he ended the history of a mirage with only written records but no video records. More than two thousand years ago, Xu Fu took an emperor's immortal dream to find the legendary "Fairy Island", leaving people with only a legendary story. For more than two thousand years, many people came to the seaside with the story of Xu Fu, hoping to realize their dream of seeing a mirage, but most of them were disappointed. A diligent TV man used his camera and scientific knowledge to let everyone know the principle of a mirage and see its true meaning. People have been waiting for this moment for more than two thousand years. When we saw the precious and hard-won mirage on TV, we were not only excited, but also grateful. This news originated on New Year's Day in 2005. Shennong Mountain Scenic Spot in Qinyang City, Henan Province is a mirage, and a rolling mountain covers the southern plain of the scenic spot. It is reported that this is the second time that a mirage has appeared in this scenic spot recently. At 7 am on June 3, 2004, a mirage appeared in Shennong Mountain Scenic Area. Mirages appear repeatedly in the same area in a very short time, which is closely related to the local air humidity and temperature. (According to Xinhuanet Henan Channel)