NavList:
A Community Devoted to the Preservation and Practice of Celestial Navigation and Other Methods of Traditional Wayfinding
Re: The taxonomy of refraction
From: Marcel Tschudin
Date: 2011 Jan 9, 02:46 +0200
From: Marcel Tschudin
Date: 2011 Jan 9, 02:46 +0200
Thank you, John, for sharing the answer. Yes, the question regarding the wind is important in this case, since the image shows the opposite of what one could conclude from the air and water temperatures. An other point could be how deep the water temperature has been measured. I also could imagine a thin layer of cold air on top of the water which didn't mix with the warmer air above it. More information on the temperature profile of the atmosphere could be found from a sounding of a nearby radiosonde station. One could possibly also find some further information on the sea surface temperature (SST). Do you know how to retrieve such data? If not, let me know date, time and location, I can give it a try. At my location I observe these days also inferior mirages when the sun is setting. In December we had for about a week or ten days a warm periode with temperatures about 10C higher than average which heated the water. Now having again colder temperatures the inferior mirages show up. On January 1st I happened to catch a nice one which I attach here. (I notice that my lens needs some cleaning.) Marcel