Sunset cloud Inferior Mirage (IMG_4416f+e)

            The setting Sun here reveals a mirage of cloud on the horizon. Note the mirror-image of the sunlit gaps in cloud along the apparent horizon.
 
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A mirage is an optical phenomenon, involving at least one inverted image, produced when light is refracted, or bent, by passing through layers of air of different temperature / density.

The photograph was taken looking out over the Mediterranean Sea at sunset on 3 November 2022 from Potima Beach, near Kissonerga, to the north of Paphos in Cyprus. The main photograph was taken with the camera's zoom lens set to its highest telephoto setting and the photo has also been slightly cropped. This illustrates that a mirage is a small, distant phenomenon. The enlarged inset image at top right is simply a highly-cropped part of the main photograph, enlarged to show the detail of the mirage more easily. 

The type of mirage here is an 'inferior mirage'. The term 'inferior' denotes that the miraged image is below the normal image. An 'inferior mirage' occurs when there is a strong vertical temperature gradient near the ground surface, with warmer air at the surface (in this case just above the sea surface) and cooler air above. Rays of light from distant objects are refracted as they pass through the strong temperature gradient and are bent upwards towards the cooler, denser air. To the observer, the miraged image is displaced downwards and appears lower than the normal image. The miraged image is also inverted.   

So, the photograph here shows that as the Sun descended towards sunset it was partially obscured by areas of cloud. In particular, the lower part of the Sun was almost completely hidden by a band of cloud just above the apparent horizon, apart from a few small gaps in the cloud that allowed some reddened sunlight to shine through. Note that these backlit gaps in the cloud appear to have a mirror-image beneath. This mirror-image is an inferior mirage. Indeed, a narrow strip of the cloud band is miraged all along the apparent horizon below what is known as the 'fold-line'. 

The horizontal level where the normal upright image folds over to become an inverted, miraged, mirror-image, is known as the 'fold-line'. This horizontal level is marked on the inset photo by the two arrowed lines. The fold-line is also known as the 'vanishing line'. Note from the inset photo that this level is just above the apparent horizon. It is not, in fact, the true horizon! The mirage obscures the true horizon - (hence why the fold-line, beneath which the mirage occurs, is also known as the vanishing line). The apparent sea horizon is, in fact, the lower edge of the strip of miraged cloud rather than the true geometric horizon.

Taken in: Cyprus / Pafos / Kissónerga (show map)

Taken on: November 3, 2022

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Camera: Canon EOS 1100D, f/6.3, 1/320 sec, 250mm, ISO 200 (more info) (hide info)

Camera:	Canon EOS 1100D
Lens:	EF-S55-250mm f/4-5.6 IS II
Aperture:	f/6.3
Exposure Time:	0.003 sec (1/320)
Focal Length:	250mm
ISO:	200
Exposure Bias:	0 EV
Flash:	Off, Did not fire
Exposure Program:	Program AE
Exposure Mode:	Auto
Metering Mode:	Multi-segment
White Balance:	Auto
Color Space:	sRGB
Software:	Adobe Photoshop Elements 18.0 (Windows)
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