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Fata Morgana (mirage)
Fata Morgana A Fata Morgana is a mirage, an optical phenomenon which results from a temperature inversion with warmer air above cooler air. Fata Morgana is a complex mirage with few inverted and erect images. The images which are created by Fata Morgana show the alternations of compressed and stretched zones.[1] Fata Morgana is also a fast changing mirage. 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 inverted and erect images.
EtymologyIt all started with Morgan le Fay, alternately known as Morgane, Morgain, Morgana and other variants, a powerful sorceress and antagonist of King Arthur and Queen Guinevere in the Arthurian legend. As her name indicates, the figure of Morgan appears to have been originally a fairy (Le Fey) rather than a human woman. The early works featuring Morgan do not elaborate her character beyond her role as a fairy or magician. She was later described as a woman, King Arthur's half sister, and an enchantress.[2] Morgan le Fay takes her brother King Arthur to Avalon [3] after his final battle at Camlann, but where is Avalon? In medieval times suggestions for the location of Avalon ranged far beyond Glastonbury. They included the other side of the Earth at the antipodes, Sicily, and other locations in the Mediterranean.[4] Wolfram von Eschenbach, in Parzival, calls the Sicilian volcano Etna the mountain of Morgan the Fairy. At the same time the legends claimed that sirens in the waters around Sicily lured the unwary to their death. Now Morgan le Fay is associated not only with Etna, but also with sirens. In a medieval French Arthurian Romance, Floriant et Florete, she is called "mistress of the fairies of the salt sea" ('La mestresse [des] fées de la mer salée'.)[5] So who is Morgan le Fay, who studied magic, who lives in fiery Etna and in the sea at the same time? What else is she capable of doing? Maybe she's the one who created the boats that fly above the sea and never approach the shore, the golden castles that float in the air above the straits of Messina which nobody was ever able to reach, the castles that are nothing more than an optical illusion - a mirage, or is she herself just a mirage, Fata Morgana as she was called in Italy?[6] Ever since Fata Morgana has been associated with Sicily.[7] 
The Fata Morgana, As Observed In The Harbour Of Messina 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. An early mention of the term Fata Morgana in English, in 1818,referred to such a mirage noticed in the Strait of Messina, between Calabria and Sicily.[8] Famous legends and observationsFlying DutchmanThe Flying Dutchman, according to folklore, is a ghost ship that can never go home, and is doomed to sail the oceans forever. The Flying Dutchman is usually spotted from afar, sometimes seen to be glowing with ghostly light. One of the possible and probably the most credible explanation of the origin of mysterious legend might be a superior mirage or Fata Morgana that sometimes might be seen at sea [9] 
Superior mirage of the boats Of course the captain should have used the word refraction and not a reflection while explaining the phenomenon to his crew. The above drawing is also incorrect. The mirage images are never wider than a miraged object is. All distortion caused by a mirage might occure only vertically, and never horizontally. It is important to remember that folklore associates Flying Dutchman with North Sea. North Sea with it icy water is one of the best places to see a superior mirage. 
AFOUL OF THE FLYING DUTCHMAN by Carl Barks In Uncle Scrooge Carl Barks wrote about Scrooge McDuck and his nephews searching for the Flying Dutchman.They were terrified by seeing a yacht with red sails flying in the sky. Later they found out that that the image they were afraid of was caused by a reflection of a shipwreck frozen in iceberg caused by phosphorus. Although the story does not refer specifically to Fata Morgana, important words here are iceberg and reflection. Superior mirage (Fata Morgana) of a ship might take many different faces. Even if a boat does not seem to fly in the air, it still looks ghostly, unusual, deserted and what is even more important ever changing in it appearance. Sometimes Fata Morgana makes a ship to float inside the waves, other times an inverted ship sails above its "real" companion. Sometimes it is hard to say what is real and what is not. If a real ship is behind the horizon Fata Morgana would bring it up, and then everything which is seen by the observer is just a mirage. If a real ship is above the horizon, his image will still be distorted by Fata Morgana. <gallery widths="270px" heights="180px" perrow="3"> Image:Fata morgana of the ships.jpg|This eight frames image show how fata morgana is changing constantly the appearance of the two ships. Four frames in the first column is ship # 1, and four frames in the second column is ship # 2 Image:Superior mirage of a small boat.jpg|At least three boats are seen on the image. The "real" one and the uppermost are in the up right position, the one in the middle in inverted, Image:Fata Morgana of a boat.jpg|Few frames of Fata Morgana of a ship demonstrate how the miraged image is changing. </gallery> Crocker Land and Crocker Mountains
Fata Morgana of the sea surface enhanced by sun glitter. Even sea surface might create a Fata Morgana under certain conditions (image on the right).The small boat on this image might go right through the "wall". As a matter of fact the sailors on this boat do not see this "wall" at all. This wall does not exist. It is just a mirage that is seen by an observer located ashore. The sailors on the boat might or might not see something similar on their horizon,depending on the conditions needed for creating Fata Morgana mirage. If the sailors see the "wall", and try to reach it, they'll be disappointed because Fata Morgana can never be reached exacltly as Crocker Land never could have been reached.
In 1818 Sir John Ross was on the voyage to discover long-sought Northwest Passage. He reached Lancaster Sound in Canada. Northwest Passage was straight ahead, except Sir John Ross never went there. He saw mountains, which he believed made going any further simply impossible. He named the mountains Crocker Mountains.He returnet to England despite the protests of several of his officers, including First Mate William Edward Parry and Edward Sabine.[10] The account of his voyage, published a year later, brought to light their disagreement, and the ensuing controversy over the existence of Crocker Mountains ruined his reputation.
Just a year later William Edward Parry, sailed farther west through non-existing mountains.
Sir John Ross was wrong twice: first time, when he saw mountains that were not there and second, when he named them after the First Secretary of the Admiralty. It was not a good idea to name mirage after the First Secretary of the Admiralty. It coated Sir John Ross dearly. He was refused ship and money for his next expeditions and must have used private funding instead.[11]
It is now known there is no land at that location and what Peary actually saw was almost certainly a Fata Morgana mirage. [13]. In 1913, Donald Baxter MacMillan organised the ill-fated Crocker Land Expedition and set out to look for Crocker Land. On 21 April they saw what appeared to be a huge island on the north-western horizon. As MacMillan later said, "Hills, valleys, snow-capped peaks extending through at least one hundred and twenty degrees of the horizon.? Piugaattoq, an Inuit hunter with 20 years of experience of the area, explained that it was just an illusion. He called it "poo-jok", which means mist. However MacMillan insisted they press on, despite the fact that it was late in the season and the sea-ice was breaking up. For five days they went on, following the mirage, until on 27 April, having covered some of dangerous sea-ice, MacMillan was forced to admit that Piugaattoq was right. Crocker Land was in fact a mirage, probably a rare form called a Fata Morgana. The expedition collected interesting samples, but it still considered to be a failure and one of the most expensive mistakes. The end cost was $100,000 a huge sum for that time.[15]
Mirages seen at Lake OntarioIn July of 1866 mirages of boats and islands were seen from Kingston, Ontario[16] Here is interesting to note that described mirages of vessels "could only be seen with the aid of a telescope". It is often the case for observing Fata Morgana. One needs to use a telescope or binoculars to see a mirage. The "cloud" that the article mentiones few times probably refers to duct. 
Mirage of Canada coast seen from Rochester, New York on April 16th of 1871 Fata Morgana and UFO
Fata Morgana of distant boats distorted images beyond recognition The UFOs seen on radars might also be due to Fata Morgana.Offical UFO Investigations in France indicates[17]: Fata Morgana was named as one of hypothesis for mysterious Australian phenomenon Min Min light[18] Fata Morgana in literatureFata Morgana is usually assosiated with something mysterious, something that never could be approached.[19] 
The 1886 drawing of a "Fata Morgana" in a desert It is interesting to notice that in the lines "the weary traveller sees In desert or prairie vast,Blue lakes, overhung with trees That a pleasant shadow cast" the authour is actually describing not a Fata Morgana, but rather a common inferior or desert mirage. The old drawing of "Fata Morgana" in a desert might have been a good illustration for the poem, except no mirage ever looks like this one. Andy Young writes about the mirages "They're always confined to a narrow strip of sky ? less than a finger's width at arm's length ? at the horizon."[1] 18th Century poet Christoph Martin Wieland wrote of 'Fata Morgana's castles in the air'. The image of castles in the air was probably so irresistible that many languages still use Fata Morgana to describe a mirage.[5] ReferencesExternal linksSee also
ca:Fata morgana cs:Fata morgána da:Fatamorgana de:Fata Morgana el:???? ???????? (?????????) es:Fata Morgana eo:Fatamorgano fr:Fata Morgana id:Fatamorgana it:Fata morgana (ottica) he:???? ?????? la:Fata Morgana lt:Fata morgana hu:Délibáb nl:Fata morgana (luchtspiegeling) no:Fata morgana pt:Fata Morgana ru:????-??????? sr:??????????? sv:Fata morgana 
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