Inferior mirage omega sunset_(IMG_2354b)

            This photograph shows an inferior mirage 'omega' sunset. 

The photo was taken looking out over the Mediterranean Sea at 18.42 hours on 23 September 2024 from the boardwalk at Kefalos beach (just north of Lighthouse beach), Paphos, Cyprus [Latitude 34° 46' 05" N, Longitude 32° 24' 20 E]. The camera was at an altitude estimated to be about 4 metres AMSL. 

As mirages are distant phenomena, a zoom lens was used on the camera and set to its maximum focal length of 300 mm. Even so, the image has been further cropped in order to enlarge the Sun and more easily see the detail of the mirage.
{WARNING: never look directly at the Sun and especially not through a camera with a zoom or telephoto lens due to the likelihood of eye damage or blindness}.

As the Sun descended towards the horizon an inverted image of the Sun's lower limb rose from the sea and joined with the normal image of the Sun. This lower image is an 'inferior mirage'.  The merged images of the Sun appear in a shape like the Greek letter 'omega'. The writer Jules Verne likened the shape to that of an Etruscan vase.

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.
 
An 'inferior' mirage occurs when there is a strong vertical temperature gradient near the ground surface (in this case, the sea), with warmer air at the surface and cooler air above. The sea surface temperature off Paphos was estimated (from satellite data) to be around 27°C. The air temperature measured around sunset at Paphos Airport was 26°C, but the air above the open sea may have been cooler than that recorded over the coastal land at the airport. 

The inferior mirage is formed when rays of light from distant objects - (in this case, the Sun) - are refracted as they pass through the temperature gradient and are bent upwards towards the observer. Thus, to the observer the miraged image is displaced downwards, appears lower than the normal upright image and is also inverted. This type of mirage is known as 'inferior' to denote that the miraged image is below the normal image.  

As well as the Sun, a narrow horizontal strip of sky just above the sea is also miraged. The apparent sea horizon here is, in fact, the lower edge of the mirage rather than the true geometric horizon.

Taken in: Cyprus / Pafos / Káto Páfos (show map)

Taken on: September 23, 2024

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Camera: Canon EOS 6D Mark II, f/6.3, 1/640 sec, 300mm, ISO 500 (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:	0.002 sec (1/640)
Focal Length:	300mm
ISO:	500
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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