Cold Road Mirage?
toptics
A
Highlights
Boris Borisovich (journal) took these.
The scene - 180km (115 miles) south of Murmansk, Northern Russia. Road and view point due north. 5th January and the sun is up a mere two and a half hours. Early afternoon it scrapes the horizon behind the camera. Earth's shadow and pink Belt of Venus adorn the northern sky.
Temperature -30 Celsius.
There are several "reflections" below the distant car headlights. We see them in summer along undulating roads heated by blazing sunshine. The hot surface heats air in contact forming layered warm air beneath cooler. The stuff of an inferior mirage. Rays from a car or the sky refract across the temperature gradients and bend back upwards. They form one or more images beneath the real objects.
But at -30 and with little sun to warm the road?
A tempting explanation is that strips of smooth reflective ice across the road give the reflections rather than a mirage. Would they survive the regular traffic? The third image below at a different location shows the bands close up. They more resemble rippling air and a miraged sky.
Somehow the lower air is warmer. Perhaps the road elevation helps. Perhaps the nearness of the frozen White Sea.
Arctic light and air play tricks, deceive . .
Image ©Boris Borisovich, shown with permission
