Recently an image taken by a British citizen went viral and was questioned by netizens. The reason is that if the ship is usually on the surface of the water, the ship in the photo appears to be in the air as if hovering over the sea in the coastal area of Falmouth, Cornwall. The image was first shared by David Morris, a property developer in England who accidentally captured the moment before finally feeling amazed by what happened.
A week later, Stevan Lomas took the same picture on his way to work. He admitted that he was surprised to witness the same incident. Then the public is wondering, why does the portrait of the ship appear “flying”, what is the cause? The following is a review that you can see.
The phenomenon of ships “flying” in British waters is also called the optical illusion in the form of a superior mirage, the cause is due to differences in air temperature around
The mirage phenomenon | Credit: David Morris / BPM Media via www.mirror.co.uk
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Quoting from the news BBCThe senior weather presenter Jen Bartam said the hovering occurred because the temperature difference between the sea (which was cold) and the air above it (which was hot) resulted in the refraction of light. The effect is that the light will be reflected so that it makes the object appear to be floating.
The ship also looks taller than it should be, the reason being that the human brain and cameras are unable to process the effects of different temperatures on how images are perceived. Optics researcher at the University of Glasgow, Claire Cisowski, said that if light travels to the eye through a straight line, it allows us to see things in a straight line.
In fact, this phenomenon also often occurs in low temperature areas such as icebergs, where generally there are reflections of objects hovering over ice cliffs. The incident occurred because of the difference between the cool air layer (below) and the warmer air layer (above), so the object’s image was reflected back down.
The phenomenon of mirages is not something special because it can be witnessed by many people, it is different from hallucinations
Portrait of a ship as if it were flying | Credit: Facebook: Col * n McCallum via www.facebook.com
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Ships that seem to fly are a common thing seen by sailors, so it is no stranger to supposedly their origins flying dutchman also comes from this phenomenon. Before going viral, the same thing was shared by Collin McCallum on February 27, 2021, he saw a red “floating ship” on the horizon (arch of the sky) while traveling in Banff, Aberdeenshire. The man was even stunned and shared the footage on his Facebook page.
Another opinion quoted from Mirror.co.uk, if it was just an eye illusion. The similarity of sea and sky colors makes our eyes unable to grasp the color boundaries of sea and sky water. In addition, the cloud-covered part near the coast tends to darken the water color due to the shadow of the clouds, making it look as if it is the boundary of sea water. Whereas the part of the ship that is far from the edge of the line, the color of the sea is the same as the sky because it is not covered by clouds. That is what our eyes catch as if a ship seems to be flying over it.
Well, that’s an explanation of this mirage phenomenon. So it’s not flying dutchman, edits, especially mystical events, SoHip!
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