On a normal day, people don’t see ocean-going vessels floating in the air above the water. One day last month, David Morris, experienced something of an abnormal day. While walking near the edge of some cliffs along England’s southwestern coast, he looked out into the ocean and saw a ship floating in the air above the horizon.
Mr. Morris stopped walking and stared
at the ship. A curious sight. He knew the ship must be on the water, but it
didn’t appear so. He captured a
photograph of the ship and later posted the photograph on Facebook.
The photograph soon went viral.
David Morris witnessed something called a superior mirage. This is a type of optical illusion created during temperature inversions. A temperature inversion occurs when a layer of cold air is trapped under a layer of warm air. In such conditions, light travels at different speeds through the temperature layers. Both human brains and cameras process the light (which is essentially refracted) to interpret ships as floating above the water.
Photo: David Morris
— Mitchell Hegman
I would be interested in knowing where exactly the ship was. It appears that if the ship is directly over where it's seen it would be right on top of a big rock.
ReplyDeleteI'll go with the "Flying Dutchman" scenario.
I would really like to see one of these for myself!
ReplyDelete