King Arthur's half-sister and an enchantress. The early works featuring Morgan do not elaborate on her nature, other than describing her role as that of a fairy or magician. As her name indicates, the figure of Morgan appears to have been originally a fairy figure rather than a human woman.
La Fata Morgana ("The Fairy Morgana") is the Italian name of Morgan le Fay, also known as Morgana and other variants, who was described as a powerful sorceress in the Arthurian legend. Gabriel Gruber (1740–1805) and Tobias Gruber (1744–1806), who observed Fata Morgana above Lake Cerknica, were the first to study it in a laboratory setting. A mirage was still present at that point, but it was not so complex as a few hours before sunset: the mirage was no longer a Fata Morgana, but instead had become a simple superior mirage.įata Morgana mirages are visible to the naked eye, but in order to be able to see the detail within them, it is best to view them through binoculars, a telescope, or as is the case in the images here, through a telephoto lens. At that point in time, the air was cooler while the ocean was probably a little bit warmer, which caused the thermal inversion to be not as extreme as it was few hours before. The last two frames were photographed a few hours later, around sunset time. In the first fourteen frames, elements of the Fata Morgana mirage display alternations of compressed and stretched zones. The sequential image here shows sixteen photographic frames of a mirage of the Farallon Islands as seen from San Francisco the images were all taken on the same day.
Because of the constantly changing conditions of the atmosphere, a Fata Morgana may change in various ways within just a few seconds of time, including changing to become a straightforward superior mirage.
While a thermal inversion often takes place without there being an atmospheric duct, an atmospheric duct cannot exist without there first being a thermal inversion.Ī Fata Morgana may be described as a very complex superior mirage with more than three distorted erect and inverted images. A Fata Morgana requires a duct to be present thermal inversion alone is not enough to produce this kind of mirage.
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In calm weather, a layer of significantly warmer air may rest over colder dense air, forming an atmospheric duct that acts like a refracting lens, producing a series of both inverted and erect images. The optical phenomenon occurs because rays of light bend when they pass through air layers of different temperatures in a steep thermal inversion where an atmospheric duct has formed. Fata Morgana mirages also show alternating compressed and stretched zones. The mirage comprises several inverted (upside down) and erect (right-side up) images that are stacked on top of one another. It may involve almost any kind of distant object, including boats, islands, and the coastline. A Fata Morgana may be seen on land or at sea, in polar regions, or in deserts. These mirages are often seen in the Italian Strait of Messina, and were described as fairy castles in the air or false land conjured by her magic.įata Morgana mirages significantly distort the object or objects on which they are based, often such that the object is completely unrecognizable. The term Fata Morgana is the Italian translation of "Morgan the Fairy" ( Morgan le Fay of Arthurian legend). A Fata Morgana changing the shape of a distant boatĪ Fata Morgana ( Italian: ) is a complex form of superior mirage visible in a narrow band right above the horizon.
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