EPOD - a service of USRA
The Earth Science Picture of the Day (EPOD) highlights the diverse processes and phenomena which shape our planet and our lives. EPOD will collect and archive photos, imagery, graphics, and artwork with short explanatory
captions and links exemplifying features within the Earth system. The
community is invited to contribute digital imagery, short captions and
relevant links.
Two Types of Bewildering Sunset Mirages
October 26, 2022
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Photographer: Mila Zinkova
Summary Author: Mila Zinkova
Have you ever seen a sun that just doesn’t want to set? Well, on
September 4, 2022, I did, over the Pacific Ocean near San Francisco. Of
course, the sun set at the time it should have. I was watching
miraged images of the sun and, believe me, this miraged sun was in
no hurry to set. A few times, miraged images of the sun appeared at the
same level they disappeared from a few minutes before, giving an
appearance of the rising, rather than the setting sun. And then, for a
few minutes the miraged sun hardly changed or moved at all. It was as
if the world suddenly stood still. Actually, I was observing a
beautiful Novaya Zemlya sunset mirage. The photo at top is a
screenshot from a video I filmed. Click here to see it.
On the very next day, September 5, 2022, during a heat wave in
California, I filmed another confounding sunset mirage (bottom photo).
Click here to see the video. The atmospheric optics are quite
complex. Because sometimes the density differences of the air are so
great, rays become almost trapped within the air layers. This is
referred to as ducting. It may take some time and large distances
before the rays can escape these layers. Dr. Andrew Young helped
interpret this odd sunset.
"It starts out looking like a fairly typical leaky-duct sunset, with a
moderate amount of wave modulation within the duct ( inversion
layer). But then at the end, you do indeed have a blank strip that
fails to close up; the Sun simply fades away in the extinction
( loss of light in the atmosphere)."
In the video, you'll notice a green-flash bit or two in the early
part of the display, before the Sun dips down into the really thick
part of the extinction.
Dr. Young continues, "As always in these extreme Type B sunsets,
the path length of the rays through the air becomes longer and
longer as the Sun's geometric position goes farther below the
astronomical horizon."
Mirages such as this can be confusing to try to understand, but they're
a joy to behold.
San Francisco, California Coordinates: 37.7749, -122.4194
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More...
Atmospheric Effects Links
* Atmospheric Optics
* Optic Picture of Day: Gruppo Astrofili Galileo Galilei
* Color and Light in Nature
* The Colors of Twillight and Sunset
* Refraction Index
* Image Gallery: Atmospheric Effects
* What is a Rainbow?
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