
Proceedings Paper
Mirage is the image of an object in the flat ground surfaceFormat | Member Price | Non-Member Price |
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Paper Abstract
It is generally accepted that mirage is formed when temperature of the ground surface, in a flat area like desert, is higher
than the temperatures of the over ground air layers. In this case, light emerging from a distant object makes total internal
reflection in the air layers and forms the image of the object that is called mirage. Our investigation on mirage formation
in desert indicates that there is no meaningful relation between mirage formation and temperature change over the
ground. In addition, we show that, the interference of the lights reflected from different air layers destroys the coherency
of the image forming light. This happens because the temperature change occurs in an interval larger than a wavelength.
In the second part of the report we demonstrate theoretically and experimentally that flat rough surfaces behave like
mirrors at very large incident angles. We show that there is a threshold incident angle for observation of image in a rough
surface that depends on the surface roughness and light wavelength. The shortest distance between observer and the
image is determined by the threshold incident angle. Mirage is such an image. Image formation is studied in rough sheet
glass surfaces that prepared by grinding with powders of different sizes.
Paper Details
Date Published: 25 October 2011
PDF: 10 pages
Proc. SPIE 8011, 22nd Congress of the International Commission for Optics: Light for the Development of the World, 80112K (25 October 2011); doi: 10.1117/12.901529
Published in SPIE Proceedings Vol. 8011:
22nd Congress of the International Commission for Optics: Light for the Development of the World
Ramón Rodríguez-Vera; Ramón Rodríguez-Vera; Ramón Rodríguez-Vera; Rufino Díaz-Uribe; Rufino Díaz-Uribe; Rufino Díaz-Uribe, Editor(s)
PDF: 10 pages
Proc. SPIE 8011, 22nd Congress of the International Commission for Optics: Light for the Development of the World, 80112K (25 October 2011); doi: 10.1117/12.901529
Show Author Affiliations
M. T. Tavassoly, Univ. of Tehran (Iran, Islamic Republic of)
M. Dashtdar, Shahid Beheshti Univ. (Iran, Islamic Republic of)
Published in SPIE Proceedings Vol. 8011:
22nd Congress of the International Commission for Optics: Light for the Development of the World
Ramón Rodríguez-Vera; Ramón Rodríguez-Vera; Ramón Rodríguez-Vera; Rufino Díaz-Uribe; Rufino Díaz-Uribe; Rufino Díaz-Uribe, Editor(s)
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