These mirages confounded early explorers.
Ross named the mountain range the Croker Mountains, but a later expedition showed that they did not exist.
The Fata Morgana mirage distorts the shape of distant ships making them appear partly hovering.
For Fata Morgana to be observed, a condition known as temperature inversion needs to exist.
The two layers of air that are at different temperatures and densities create an interface.
When light hits this interface boundary it bends and travels through the new layer at a different angle.
This is known as refraction.
This is known as an inferior mirage.
This pop in of mirage is known as a superior mirage.
Throughout the 19th and 20th centuries there have been many sightings of the Flying Dutchman.
Aside from the sea, the Fata Morgana illusion can occur also in land.
In 2015, an image of a floating city appeared above a town in China startling onlookers.
Superior mirage on a winter morning in the Mojave Desert creates an illusion of a large wall.
The same scene in the afternoon (below).
