rare mirage off China shore...

[Patricio Elicer]

I'm very impressed by all those who instantly declare the image to be fake.

Not that impressive, given the huge amount of fakes there are on mysterious/unusual occurances.

For example, do you think this is possibly real?

 

[geni]

Nothing in the metadata. No reason why it could not be real.

 

[Patricio Elicer]

Nothing in the metadata. No reason why it could not be real.

An impact of that magnitude, people standing a few tens of meters away, a pick up truck right on the spot, and nobody is hurt?

 

[geni]

Not that impressive, given the huge amount of fakes there are on mysterious/unusual occurances.

For example, do you think this is possibly real?

No but there is no natural phenonemon that looks like that in any way shape or form. On top of that if a one of even that like that did occure the odds of it being filmed are pretty much zilch. By comparision an impressive mirrage will be visible by rather a lot of people so a photo is far from unexpected.

 

[geni]

An impact of that magnitude, people standing a few tens of meters away, a pick up truck right on the spot, and nobody is hurt?

I was refuring to the original photo. Not to the film clip.

 

[a_unique_person]

I don't think the image is a fake, but I also don't thing this is as spectacular as they're making out. My guess is that the coastline is really there, maybe with a few coastal buildings and so on, but the mirage has created a kind of vertical elongation of the opposite coast, making it look like a city.

Where I used to live on a bay, the opposite shore was visible/invisible depending on the weather conditions. That is, no rain or fog, clear sky, sometimes there would be an opposite shore, sometimes not.

 

[arthwollipot]

Not that impressive, given the huge amount of fakes there are on mysterious/unusual occurances.

For example, do you think this is possibly real?

I don't, but I really liked the "levitation" video on the same site. Is that David Blaine?

 

[drfrank]

In order for the mirage of the cityscape to appear rightside up, wouldn't it have to be a mirage of a mirage?

Ah, I probably didn't explan myself well, as I was hypothesising wildly What I meant was that the only way it could be real would be if the air were somehow acting as a approx. vertical mirror on the horizon, so when you look out from the coast, you're seeing a reflection of the coast you're standing on.

As I said, I have absolutely no evidence that this is the case or whether this could happen theoretically - it would certainly be a different mechanism that produces the standard upside-down mirages.

So yes, my conclusion was fake in lieu of any other evidence.

[edit: actually, now after reading the rest of the thread and realising that there is an existing coastline there, this does not seem so far-fetched. My thoughts were based on the assumption that there was bugger-all in the area that it could be an inverted reflection of.]

 

[DeVega]

This phenomenon has some provenance in chinese folklore.

Apparently, at the time of the First Emperor, people believed the mirage (which occured randomly every few years) to be a magical island/city where immortals (or possibly, gods) lived. The First Emperor sent an expedition to explore or conquer the place but it was lost at sea and never returned.
(I do not know how much of this is verifiable - I saw it on a BBC documentary a few years back... actually, now I think of it, there were pictures... I'll have a search.)

I wonder if it's likely that a modern photographer might have had this in mind if they were trying to reproduce the phenom. OR - if it's real - it is the first reported modern sighting of the same phenomenon.Which is really cool IMO!

 

[monoman]

A bit like this crude photoshopping by me...

http://www.internationalskeptics.com/forums/imagehost/361744637211103c3.jpg

Very impressive!

When i first read the article I assumed the fog created the mirage out of nothing but looking at it now it does look like a cliff face perhaps with a building or 2 at the top.

It's a shame there isn't a photo of the same scene without the fog.

 

[Meffy]

If it's real, what I'd really like to see is video of the event. That would give a better impression of what it's like to see it in person.

I still wonder about the "fog" -- even if this is genuine, it seems to me that something like stacked temperature inversions would be the cause, and any fog just a by-product of the same conditions that created the inversions.

I kinda hope it is genuine. Atmospheric optical phenomena are a minor mania of mine. =^_^=

 

[Timothy]

Not that impressive, given the huge amount of fakes there are on mysterious/unusual occurances.

For example, do you think this is possibly real?

No.

But I have reasons to suspect it other than "it couldn't be real, so it's a fake."

But an image that resembles a city, which upon actual inspection shows the known traits and characteristics of a mirage shouldn't be summarily dismissed as a fake.

The same thing happened in the thread about the floating figures in the Gettysburg (?) graveyard which several people immediately cried "FAKE!". Being a professional in the field, I saw nothing that was inconsistent with Grampa's shaking hand and an open shutter.

That attitude is disturbingly close to that of the IDers who are regularly chastised for their specious arguments of "I can't imagine how it's possible, therefore it must not be true."

Being a skeptic, I look for actual evidence to support a conclusion rather than just jump to a preconceived notion. Maybe it's a faked image of a mirage with all the characteristics that would fool me into thinking so ... I don't know. But there's nothing I see in the image that would immediately lead me to suspect falsification.

--------------

Even if you could clearly see a high-rise shoreline, broad streets, and bustling cars, could you be sure that the image was faked? Without knowing what the geography looked like, you could be seeing an actual shore of the farside of the bay through a fogbank and be debating endlessly over a misleading or intentionally deceptive description of the scene.

- Timothy

 

[Soapy Sam]

I have not seen the exif data on the original photo- which is , in any case, also fakeable- but I can see individual windows in large buildings in the picture. The picture may have been taken with a telephoto, but it does not look like it from the aspect ratio.
That means it's close enough for those actual buildings to be easily recognisable to people viewing the mirage. They must know where the place is- which makes any mention of an unknown city rather daft.

This supposes there is no magnification in such a mirage. If there is, can someone explain the mechanism, please? It seems to me that if I see the image of a tree which actually is ten miles away, it cannot look like a tree which is a hundred yards away.

Also, as I understand a Fata Morgana, the image should be inverted, which this seems not to be.

I see no reason to dispute that people there may see mirages. I just doubt that this is a picture of one.

 

[Babylon Sister]

If it's real, what I'd really like to see is video of the event. That would give a better impression of what it's like to see it in person.

I still wonder about the "fog" -- even if this is genuine, it seems to me that something like stacked temperature inversions would be the cause, and any fog just a by-product of the same conditions that created the inversions.

I kinda hope it is genuine. Atmospheric optical phenomena are a minor mania of mine. =^_^=

Wikiperdia has a very good discussion on this phenomena. It's called Fata Morgana (after Morgan Le Faye = shape shifter of legend) as I said in my post above. The wiki article even has the science and math!

And you are right, temperature inversions have much to do with this event.

 

[alfaniner]

I'm having trouble seeing what relationship the second picture has to the first. It doesn't look like the first is an enlargement of any part of the second.

 

[Timothy]

but I can see individual windows in large buildings in the picture. ... That means it's close enough for those actual buildings to be easily recognisable to people viewing the mirage.

Window pareidolia.

This supposes there is no magnification in such a mirage. If there is, can someone explain the mechanism, please? It seems to me that if I see the image of a tree which actually is ten miles away, it cannot look like a tree which is a hundred yards away.

What tree?

Do you have any idea how far away the far shore is? And you're *assuming* buildings with windows.

Also, as I understand a Fata Morgana, the image should be inverted, which this seems not to be.

You don't quite understand correctly. There is typically an upper/lower section with horizontal mirror symmetry (see many of the previous links with pictures) And this has that characteristic along with several additional horizontal lines indicating a complex refraction profile.

I've posted below a picture showing in red the line of symmetry - mirror image above and below. With red dots I've pointed out specific places where I see an obvious reflection symmetry (at least until I got tired). The three yellow lines indicated horizontal bands that extend the full length of the image.

With this evidence, I see more indication of a mirage than a fabrication.

- Timothy

 

[ChristineR]

I think the second picture is roughly the same view without the Fata Morgana. The second view has a wider field of view, and the hills appear somewhat smaller, but you can see the basic outline of the landscape from left to right: higher hill in foreground, low land area further away, moderately sloping hill in background.

 

[Orphia Nay]

This has made me wonder even more about a mirage my family saw about 30 years ago. It was after lunch on a clear Summer day, at Port Elliot in South Australia. We went outside where there was a wide view of the bay. Far out to sea, we all saw a mirage of a small desert island with palm trees and what looked like buildings. (Image of an approximation of the mirage attached. The buildings were more complicated, but still sandy-coloured and squarish.) We stood there looking at it for at least 10 minutes, maybe longer, then the adults said we should all have a nap, as they were feeling a bit bewildered. I've always felt a bit disappointed I didn't get to watch it disappear.

I checked with my mother today, and she remembers it the same way I do. She told me she had been discussing it a few months ago with her cousin and her cousin's family who were there with us too, and they still remember seeing the same thing.

There are no such islands, either in that direction, or further out to sea, and as far as we know there are none like it anywhere near the southern coast of Australia. It was not foggy. I remember it as a very clear, sunny day, but it's possible there may have been some clouds.

I've done a bit of googling, but can't find anything that describes such a mirage. It does not seem that it could be a Fata Morgana. Perhaps Meffy, or someone else with knowledge of atmospheric optical phenomena might be able to explain it for me.