Ships & Mirages

Marco Meniero pictured these miraged cruise ships from the beach at Pisa, Italy looking southwards. ©Marco Meniero

The mirages, created by refraction between a lower warm air layer and upper cool air, show the classical 'inferior mirage' form of an inverted image below an erect one. The sea has cut off the lower part of the mirage as witnessed by the illusion of a choppy horizon. Had the mirage been more complete there might have been more images, first an erect one, then another inverted and so on...