Fata Morgana (mirage)

Fata Morgana (mirage)

A fata morgana is a mirage, an optical phenomenon which results from a temperature inversion. Objects on the horizon, such as islands, cliffs, ships or icebergs, appear elongated and elevated.

In calm weather, the undisturbed interface between warm air over cold dense air near the surface of the ground may act as a refracting lens, producing an upside-down image, over which the distant direct image appears to hover. Fata morgana are usually seen in the morning after a cold night which has resulted in the radiation of heat into space. An early mention of the term "fata morgana" in English, in 1818,Fact|date=December 2007 referred to such a mirage noticed in the Strait of Messina,Fact|date=December 2007 between Calabria and Sicily. It is common in high mountain valleys, such as the San Luis Valley of Colorado, where the effect is exaggerated due to the curvature of the floor of the valley canceling out the curvature of the Earth. They may be seen in Arctic seas on very still mornings, or commonly on Antarctic ice shelves.

Walter Charleton, in his 1654 treatise "Physiologia Epicuro-Gassendo-Charltoniana," devotes several pages to the description of the famous Morgana of Rhegium, in the Strait of Messina (Book III, Chap. II, Sect. II). He records that a like phenomenon was reported in Africa by Diodorus Siculus, a Greek historian writing in the 1st century B.C., and that the Rhegium Fata Morgana was described by Damascius, a Greek Philosopher of the sixth century A.D. In addition, Charleton tells us that Athanasius Kircher described the Rhegium mirage in his book of travels.

The ill-fated Crocker Land Expedition of 1913 was sent to map Crocker Land, a land mass in the Arctic Ocean that turned out to be nothing but a Fata Morgana.

Fata morgana is a much more complex form of superior mirages, which are distinct from the more common inferior mirages. While with a simple superior mirage an observer sees an inverted image below the correct one, with fata morgana an observer would see complex alternation of distorted correct and inverted images.

External links

* [http://www.icogitate.com/~ergosum/essays/vtth/viewtothehorizon.htm Essay including a photo of the fata morgana over Monterey Bay, California]

ee also

* Mirage


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  • Fata Morgana — is the Italian name for Morgan le Fay, the fairy half sister of King Arthur (both fata and fay mean fairy.) The other uses of the phrase below derive from this use, all meaning an illusion, or illusory prospect:* A Fata Morgana (mirage), a mirage …   Wikipedia

  • Fata Morgana — Saltar a navegación, búsqueda Fata Morgana, cerca de la costa noruega El efecto Fata Morgana recibe su nombre del italiano fata Morgana (es decir: hada Morgana), en referencia a la hermanastra del Rey Arturo (Morgan le Fay) que, según la leyenda …   Wikipedia Español

  • fata morgana —    Fata morgana is Italian for mirage. The eponym is derived from Morgan le Fay, the name of King Arthur s half sister, a fairy and shape shifter who features in the Legend of the Grail.The term fata morgana is used to denote a complex type of… …   Dictionary of Hallucinations

  • Fata morgana — Fata morgana, In unserm an Wunder armen Norden blickt so manches von Hoffnung und Sehnsucht erfüllte Gemüth nach den dahin ziehenden Wolkenbildern empor, bemüht, ihre Gestalten zu deuten und im Spiegel der Zukunft zu lesen, und schon Ossian… …   Damen Conversations Lexikon

  • fata Morgana — Mirage Mi rage , n. [F., fr. mirer to look at carefully, to aim, se mirer to look at one s self in a glass, to reflect, to be reflected, LL. mirare to look at. See {Mirror}.] An optical effect, sometimes seen on the ocean, but more frequently in… …   The Collaborative International Dictionary of English

  • Fata Morgana — 1818, lit. Fairy Morgana, mirage especially common in the Strait of Messina, Italy, from Morgana, the Morgan le Fay of Anglo French poetry, sister of King Arthur, located in Calabria by Norman settlers. Morgan is Welsh, sea dweller. There is… …   Etymology dictionary

  • Fata Morgāna — Fata Morgāna, eine von den Italienern, so von einer Fee Morgana bezeichnete optische Erscheinung in der Atmosphäre, französisch Mirage, deutsch Luftspiegelung od. Kimmung benannt, welche auf einer Strahlenbrechung u. einer Reflexion in… …   Pierer's Universal-Lexikon

  • Fata Morgana — Fa ta Mor*ga na [It.; so called because this phenomenon was looked upon as the work of a fairy (It. fata) of the name of Morg[ a]na. See {Fairy}.] A kind of mirage by which distant objects appear inverted, distorted, displaced, or multiplied. It… …   The Collaborative International Dictionary of English

  • fata morgana — [fät′ə môr gän′ə] n. [It, lit., MORGAN LE FAY] a mirage, esp. one sometimes seen off the coast of Sicily near the Strait of Messina: so called because formerly supposed to be the work of Morgan le Fay …   English World dictionary

  • Fata Morgana (optique) — Pour les articles homonymes, voir Fata Morgana. Une Fata Morgana aperçue en 2005 sur la côte norvégienne. Une Fata Morgana est un …   Wikipédia en Français

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