Mock-mirage sunset with miraged sunspots_(IMG_2082b +2080a to 2083a)

            This photo-montage shows a mock-mirage of the Sun photographed just before sunset. The Sun's limb appears distorted and one group of sunspots is miraged. The picture sequence on the left shows the changes in appearance of the sunspots over a period of 14 seconds as the Sun descended a tiny bit lower in the sky.

Mock-mirage optical phenomena result from the refraction (bending) of the Sun's rays through temperature inversions with layers of warmer air above cooler air. A mock-mirage is created when looking down through a thermal inversion and (due to the curvature of the Earth) back out through it again beyond the horizon.

The photographs here were taken with the camera at an altitude estimated to be about 190 metres AMSL. The view is looking out over the Mediterranean Sea at 18.55 hours on 15th September 2024 from the roof of a house at Konia in Cyprus, a few kilometres inland from the coast at Paphos.  
The camera's zoom lens was set to its highest telephoto setting of 300 mm focal length but, in addition, all of the pictures here have been substantially cropped  to enlarge the Sun's image and show the miraged sunspots more clearly. 

The inset pictures on the left are highly-cropped parts of four  photographs taken over a 14-second period. T=0 is the first in this sequence, with T+2 taken 2 seconds later, followed by the third photo 10 seconds after the first, and finally the last one (T+14) taken 14 seconds after the first photo. The full-disk picture on the right is a less cropped version of the original photograph taken at T+10. The arrow points to the location of the sunspot group on the Sun's disk. 

{WARNING: never look at the Sun directly and especially not through a camera with a zoom or telephoto lens due to the likelihood of eye damage or blindness}.

........................

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.

During this particular sunset the Sun's image displayed several mirage phenomena as it lowered towards sunset, indicating that it was passing through multiple small thermal / density distortions in the lower atmosphere. Normally temperature falls with height, but kinks in the 'typical' vertical thermal profile here resulted in several small temperature inversions with layers of warmer (less dense) air above cooler (denser) air. Note: these inversions need only be changes of a degree or two. Refraction (bending) of the Sun's rays through these temperature inversions is the cause of the mirage phenomena here. 

In the full-disk picture we can see that the image of the Sun's limb exhibits several nicks and distortions as a result of light being refracted at these temperature / density changes. However, the more interesting feature of the photo-montage is the miraged group of sunspots on the left of the Sun's disk: -  (see the sequence of 4 enlarged pictures on the left).

The final photo of the sequence at bottom left (T+14) shows this sunspot group  [specifically identified as Active Region 3825]  as un-miraged. But note the miraged, double-image of these spots 14 seconds earlier (at T=0) in the top left picture. Images of the spots appear vertically above/below each other. One image is descending and the other is ascending. Two seconds later (T+2), as the Sun lowered very slightly, the spot on the right now appears as a single un-miraged spot. The other spots in the group however, being ever so slightly higher, are still miraged. A further 8 seconds later (at T+10) the mirage is even more pronounced. The slightly lower spot on the right is un-miraged, but the light from the others in the group (still passing through the temperature / density inversion) is refracted and miraged into what looks like at least three images stretched and merging vertically one on top of the other. Four seconds later (at T+14) the Sun has lowered ever so slightly towards the horizon and the light rays from all parts of this sunspot group [AR 3825] are no longer refracted by the temperature inversion, and no longer miraged.

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

Taken on: September 15, 2024

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Camera: Canon EOS 6D Mark II, f/6.3, 1/4000 sec, 300mm, ISO 100 (more info) (hide info)

Camera:	Canon EOS 6D Mark II
Lens:	EF70-300mm f/4-5.6 IS II USM
Aperture:	f/6.3
Exposure Time:	1/4000 sec
Focal Length:	300mm
ISO:	100
Exposure Bias:	-3 EV
Flash:	Off, Did not fire
Exposure Program:	Shutter speed priority AE
Exposure Mode:	Auto
Metering Mode:	Center-weighted average
White Balance:	Auto
Color Space:	sRGB
Software:	Adobe Photoshop Elements 18.0 (Windows)
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