Floating city in the clouds: Fake or fata morgana?

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Pontianak Have you ever seen an image taken from one of so many youtube video channels on the internet which clearly shows amazing image something that forming a thing which looks like a city or castle floating in the cloud. Take a look at a photo taken from CNN down below

Floating city in the clouds: Fake or fata morgana?
Photo taken from CNN Youtube Channel

This image surfaced out of China and it looks like their city is floating in the clouds. Of course, we can't verify if the video is real or not, but we have seen things like this before.

This is a type of superior mirage called a Fata Morgana, where air temperature near the surface is actually cooler than the air above. It can make objects appear like they are stacked on top of each other, or in this case, like a city floating in the clouds.

WHAT IS FATA MORGANA

Fata Morgana: Understanding the Optical Illusion of Mirages Fata Morgana: Understanding the Optical Illusion of Mirages. Fata Morgana: Understanding the Optical Illusion of Mirages Have you ever looked out into the distance and seen something that looks like a mirage? If so, you may have witnessed a Fata Morgana, an optical phenomenon that can create some truly extraordinary illusions.

A Fata Morgana is a complex form of mirage that occurs when light passes through layers of varying temperatures in the Earth's atmosphere. This temperature gradient bends the light and creates visual distortions, sometimes causing objects to appear elongated, elevated or even inverted.

Fata Morgana is named after the Arthurian sorceress Morgana le Fay because it can famously conjure mirages of fairy tale castles and cities. Despite its mystical name, the Fata Morgana is a well-documented and scientifically explained optical illusion. W.G. Rees provided a scientific explanation for Fata Morgana in his papers, where he offered a better understanding of the phenomenon to account for imagined islands and ships.

Similar effects can also be observed at the surface of the sea where layers of air with different temperatures cause light to refract and produce mirages. Fata Morgana is an optical illusion caused by light refraction through layers of varying temperatures in the Earth's atmosphere.

This phenomenon can create some of the most extraordinary mirages, making objects appear elongated or inverted. Named after the Arthurian sorceress Morgana le Fay, Fata Morgana is a complex form of mirage that has been widely documented and scientifically explained.

It is essential to note that Fata Morgana can have serious consequences, particularly for transportation and navigation. Accurate understanding and identification of Fata Morgana can be crucial for transportation and navigation safety. It's important to be aware of Fata Morgana not only due to its intriguing nature as an optical illusion but also because of the potential hazards it poses

Illustration taken from Top Fives Youtube Channel

CONCLUSION

The same phenomenon happens when you're driving in your car on a hot day and you see what appears to be water or something liquid on the road in the distance, or you've heard of people walking through the desert and they see water in the distance, and then once you get closer, it disappears.

Light waves travel through the atmosphere from the sun straight to your eye. But they actually travel through the atmosphere at different speeds. A mirage occurs when the temperature on the ground is hotter than the air above.

When light travels through the cooler air into that warmer air near the ground, the light is refracted or bent, and what your eye is seeing is not that U shaped bend, but an illusion.

With so many mountain, ranges and vast terrains over which clouds can form. It's no surprise that China has far more than its fair. Share of unusual, Sky formations, but this one is leagues beyond the others. It looked as if there was a castle set above the clouds because of the interaction between their formation and the Shadows that were being cast over them.

And at first, you might think this was some elaborate forgery. It's actually, though, a type of optical illusion called a fata Morgana mentioned above, which occurs when A well defined area of warm air on top of a layer of much cooler air.

This causes light to refract in an unusual way and can result in the appearance of images that are stacked on top of each other like this, the clouds haven't actually formed a castle. But from a distance, what you're seeing is the outline of a city appearing, much higher in the sky than it truly is  (Taken from several resources )