College Physics ›› 2022, Vol. 41 ›› Issue (10): 23-.

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Formation mechanism and reappearance experiment of Fata Morgana phenomenon

CHEN Jia-bin1, XU Qiang1,WANG Wei2,ZHONG Ming2,LU Jian-long1   

  1. 1.College of Teacher Education,Nanjing Normal University,Nanjing, Jiangsu 210023, China; 
    2.College of Physics,Nanjing Normal University,Nanjing, Jiangsu 210023, China
  • Received:2021-09-04 Revised:2021-10-15 Online:2022-10-22 Published:2022-10-26

Abstract: Fata Morgana phenomenon is a beautiful and complex illusion due to the refraction and total reflection of light in a certain fluid. In this paper, the physical mechanism of Fata Morgana phenomenon is analyzed, and the imaging mechanism of single image extension, contraction, inverted and multiple image overlapping of Fata Morgana phenomenon are qualitatively analyzed. The Fata Morgana phenomenon is reproduced through experiments. Using the laser display light path, the ray trajectory equation in single-layer medium is deduced theoretically, the causes of various complex phenomena are analyzed and verified by experiments.

Key words:  fata Morgana phenomenon, inversion layer, refractive index gradient, layered solution, refraction and total reflection of light