Posted by Dave W on August 14, 2000 at 19:57:47 from dewaller.demon.co.uk:
In Reply to: Re: Curious sight near the Pyefleet Channel posted by Prue Eckett on August 14, 2000 at 04:54:58:
Following John's thrilling personal version of the "Pyefleet effect", there might be just a few who feel they would like to see a more "authorised version". For these few I offer the following two sites :
a site in finland which is in very readable English, with explanations, descriptions and photographs.
The second site here contains an extremely large bibliography of sightings of mirages, atmospheric refraction effects and green flashes (at sunset/ sun rise).
As a taster I include the following extract from this site which gives a good visual impression of the distortion effect which I noticed.
B. M. Varney
``A striking case of looming over the sea,''
Bull. Amer. Met. Soc. 7, 109-110 (1926).
Nice observation of HEIGHT effect, and "SURF"
"From a rowboat, the low, rocky coast of one of the outlying islands was seen to alternate rapidly between its normal shape and that of splendid `cliffs.' The alternations synchronized with the rising and falling, respectively, of the boat over the slight swells of a glassy sea. So thin was the refracting layer of air, that when the boat was on top of a swell, the distant coast appeared in its true character to a person sitting in the boat. When the boat was in the trough, up popped the `cliffs' to form a fine palisade along the whole visible length of the island. From the deeper troughs the looming very nearly went over into full mirage, the normal form of the island shore then shooting out horizontally bottom up, over the true shore. . . . The most spectacular feature of the display was the magnificent `surf' made by the very moderate swell when its breaking coincided with the dips of the boat into troughs. The spray would at such times shoot upward in a brilliant white column as high as the `cliffs' produced by the momentary looming."
And finally, for those seeking another version of the history of pi, I offer this site.