Fata Morgana Article #261 by T. Neil Davis
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This column is provided as a public service by the Geophysical Institute,
University of Alaska Fairbanks, in cooperation with the UAF research community.
T. Neil Davis is a seismologist at the institute.
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Fata Morgana, also known as Morgan le Fay, was a fairy enchantress skilled in
the art of changing shape. In one traditional story she was King Arthur's sister
and learned many of her skills from Merlin the Magician.
A special type of complex mirage, one that sometimes gives the impression of a castle half in the
air and half in the sea, is named after Fata Morgana. She was known to live in a marvelous castle
under the sea. Sometimes the enchantress made this castle appear reflected up in the air,
causing seamen who mistook it for a safe harbor to be lured to their deaths.
The fate morgana mirage is one that can occur only where there are
alternating warm and cold layers of air near the ground or water surface.
Instead of traveling straight through these layers, light is bent towards the colder,
hence denser, air.
The result can be a rather complicated light path and a strange image of a distant object.
A fate morgana actually is a superposition of several images of one object.
Typically one image is upright more or less above two inverted images that may be mingled
together.
The images may undergo rapid changes as the air layers move slightly up and down relative to
the observer.
In Alaska the best chance of seeing the relatively rare fate morgana is in winter when temperature
inversions develop in the larger valleys.
When seeing a complex mountain image out across a valley or bay one can attempt to sort out in
the mind the paths that the light rays must have taken.
Or, perhaps it's best just to acknowledge that it is Morgan le Fay beckoning.
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So I wander and wander along,
And forever before me gleams
The shining city of song,
In the beautiful land of dreams.
But when I would enter the gate
Of that golden atmosphere,
It is gone, and I wonder and wait
For the vision to reappear.
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This is a Fate Morgana off the Norwegian Coast.
The image in the distance is a mirage.
She just makes it seem as though there is something in the distance..........
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