Do not confuse the mirage with UFOs and flying ships

On the Internet, you can find a large number of false reports about UFOs. Often people confuse simple optical phenomena with something amazing. In this article, we will deal with this issue.

I must say right away, maybe someone did not know about this - the mirage is an optical illusion, not a psychic hallucination, that is, it can not only be seen in space but also photographed. A mirage is considered to be an optical atmospheric phenomenon that is formed as a result of changes in the density of air.

The air on the planet is not uniform at all, in some parts it can be hotter, and in another, it is colder, and the mirage just occurs at the border of the intersections of such layers of air. Therefore, a mirage can appear not only in the sky or in a hot desert, but also over the sea or ocean.

There are many types of mirages, for example, werewolf mirages, ghost mirages, but we will look at their main types, which can often be seen in the air.

The Lower mirage or as it is also called the desert mirage. This type of mirage is well-studied, it can often be observed in the Sahara Desert, it appears due to the reflection of light rays from the upper, hot layer of air.

It seems that the mountains are visible on the horizon ahead, but in fact, they are not there.

The lower type of mirage also includes a mirage that appears in the heat on the road. Which gives the impression that the road is wet, but it's just a mirage. When the road is flat and has a very hot surface, the hot layers of air above it combine with the colder layers, and as a result, this mirage is formed.

Upper mirage-this type of mirage occurs as a result of the reflection of light in the upper atmospheric layers, in clear weather, the cold air above the surface acts as a lens and as a result, the sun's rays are bent. This phenomenon was first scientifically explained, and was recognized by scientists at the end of the 20th century.

When we look at it, we also see a shore or land ahead on the horizon, which does not exist at that distance, it appears in the form of a mirage.

A complex mirage - also called "Fata Morgana"-occurs when several alternating layers of air of different densities are formed in the lower layers of the atmosphere (usually due to temperature differences), which can give mirror reflections in space.

A complex type of mirage "Flying Dutchman". This is not a mystical ghost ship, this is a real ship that can be located at a distance of several tens or even hundreds of kilometers, but due to changes in the density of the air in the atmosphere, a mirage appears, which manifests a distant object in the sky in all its glory, it looks as if the ship is floating in the sky, as if in space.

Thus, the mirage is a part of our life. We must understand that our atmosphere is water in different states, and it can act as a lens. This should always be taken into account when you see something unusual and bizarre. However, we will not deny that the scientific explanations of the mirage do not always seem convincing, especially when you watch the sensational (several years ago) news reportage. 

To the oddities, we will add one more point. People in the deserts see not just mirages, there are often cases when they reach it and start trying to drink water, but in their hands there is sand. Our world is much more interesting than we think.

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About author:

Serg Toporkov Ufologist, Ph.D., blogger, I go on my own expeditions for UFOs. I use scientific methods to investigate the UAP phenomenon. Write to me

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Related tags:

mirage  Flying Dutchman  Sahara Desert  UFOs  ships  sea  ocean  atmosphere  Fata Morgana