Debunked: Hovering Ship "Fata Morgana" or "Mirage" [False Horizon]

[Mick West]

Tabloid media love to invoke the cool sounding "fata morgana" or "superior mirage" to explain images of things floating in the sky. The problem is that a real fata morgana superior mirage (above the boat) looks like this:

An inferior mirage (under the boat) looks like this:

In both cases there's distortion, and there's inversion.

It does NOT look like this:

Source: Science Channel

Despite the Science Channel's talking heads saying this is a Fata Morgana, it very obviously is not. The giveaway is the total lack of distortion, duplicated images, or inversion. It's just a boat, relatively close to shore, but beyond a false horizon created by the fog bank behind and around the boat, combined with the shallow angle at that distance, altering the reflection off the surface of the sea. If you boost the levels in the image, as I did with the title image of this post, then you can see where the horizon would be.

The person who shot the video says:

That is what really happened that day, the "Fata Morgana ". That was a very cold and calm morning, no breeze. The steam created from the warm waters of the Golf Coast of Florida create a thin layer of fog over the ocean, creating the illusion of the sailboat floating on the air. If you look closely you could see the water line over the boat surface. The apple was a prop that we used that day for a TV commercial.

There's several examples of this type of illusion being "explained" as a fata morgana.

http://www.express.co.uk/news/weird...flying-boat-could-have-emerged-through-portal

Video footage posted to YouTube allegedly shows the phenomenon as seen from Cocoa Beach, Florida, USA.

It was reportedly filmed by a tourist but witnessed by many more people on the beach.

While there have been claims it was a real flying boat, or even an odd-shaped UFO exiting the sea, the truth, as often is, remains likely to be more down to Earth.

Level-headed sceptics said it was not a flying ship but another example of an unusual optical illusion, known as "Fata Morgana."

But again, a little adjustment of the levels shows it's just a change in the surface of the water that's creating a false horizon. You can even see the brighter parts of the boat (where the bridge faces the sun) creating ordinary reflections on the water surface below.

This photo is higher resolution than the video of the sailboat, and so we can see the difference between the water surface and the sky. We can even see the ripple of the wake from the small boat that's "in" the illusionary sky area.

Another:

Source: thriol on Flickr

Fata Morgana sounds cool, and it does make some really cool images sometimes. But it's not a panacea explanation for everything that looks like it's floating in the sky.

See also: Floating Cities are Generally not Fata Morgana Mirages

 

[Clouds Givemethewillies]

I don't see evidence of fog. I think it is just a patch of water with the same colour as the sky.

 

[Mick West]

I don't see evidence of fog. I think it is just a patch of water with the same colour as the sky.

Well yes, but it's not like it's different color water. There's a lower quality video out with a wider shot (the apple is a prop for the video shoot)

You can see a bit of blue sky there. The video also describes fog, so I think it was more apparent to him, assuming he was there.

I don't think it's a simple as a reflection of a band of fog though, I'm not entirely sure, but I think there's a combination of factors. The surface of the water is reflecting something that looks like the sky behind it, I think the fog serves more to obscure where the true horizon is, and to blend in the sky/sea area with the actual sky.

In this example there's more haze than fog, but it still serves to obscure the horizon.

I think the floating sailboat just has a bit more of that.

The difference in reflection beyond the false horizon is something like this:

Source: http://www.blackdiamondnow.net/.a/6a00e5513924e6883301bb0948695e970d-pi

I'm not sure exactly what's going on here, but I have two theories:

1) for a given size of ripples then at a certain angle the water surface transitions from being dominated by straight reflections (of what is behind it) to being dominated by ambient reflections (of the sky)
2) Different regions of the water surface have different ripples due to localized variations in wind.

 

[Clouds Givemethewillies]

The absence of a reflection of the boat seems odd for such calm conditions. Perhaps there is a thin layer of dense fog, but it must be only an inch or so, as I can see the shape of the transom.

 

[Mick West]

The absence of a reflection of the boat seems odd for such calm conditions. Perhaps there is a thin layer of dense fog, but it must be only an inch or so, as I can see the shape of the transom.

I don't think you'd see a reflection. Look at the lake image above, there's no reflection of the hills. Just scattered reflections of the overall sky color.

I also don't think it's a 1" layer of fog, there's just fog behind, and perhaps somewhat around the boat.

 

[Clouds Givemethewillies]

Watching the video
Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QjIxRMWM5do&lc=z22wexjjmkest1ngv04t1aokgluzqsaohsvo2qy50hhhbk0h00410

there is a good gentle breeze (3 Beaufort) on the dark part of the sea (when in focus) but the boat is hardly moving, although the sails seem to be setting, it is hard to tell with a fully battened main. It needs to be absolutely flat calm to get a specular reflection, so there is no need for fog to obscure a reflection, create that transition line, or at all, although it was reported.. perhaps to explain what they saw.

 

[Clouds Givemethewillies]

T the risk of being controversial, I have noticed that scientists sometimes make the mistake of saying "it must be so and so, and I am a scientist don't you know" because they are too thick to think of anything else!

 

[Bunkmeister]

I actually recognized the ship in the second image of the original post - it is the Kaye E. Barker. I see this ship come into the port of Green Bay on Lake Michigan sometimes. http://www.boatnerd.com/pictures/fleet/kebarker.htm

Anyhow, this thread is helpful for me to understand misinformation about these visual phenomena.

 

[Lithops]

Just to chime in...

Boats can be very well be seen floating in air because of it being a mirage, but usually you will see the reflection as well. Just like this one :

Now i know that this is just on a large lake and the opposite shore also has the same distortion which makes the mirage evident, but the key point is that you should see at least some bit of a reflection. Not a sharp bottom of a boat.

 

[Mick West]

Another example making the rounds:

Article:

David Morris took a photo of the ship while walking near Falmouth, Cornwall.

BBC meteorologist David Braine said the "superior mirage" occurs because of "special atmospheric conditions that bend light".

He said the illusion is common in the Arctic, but can appear "very rarely" in the UK during winter.

Source: https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-cornwall-56286719

I'm going to call BS on the "mirage" explanation again. I think this is just a false horizon, like the other examples.

The Explanation from the eyewitness is correct in essence, although the reasoning for the change in color of the water surface seems off:

Article:

David's son, also David, "we were amazed and very baffled" but that they had in fact seen the phenomenon before.

His picture shows the large vessel appearing to float in the blue sky above the water.

Due to the similar colouring of the sea and sky, the large vessel appears to be sitting amongst the clouds.

The floating ship taken from Gillan on the Helford estuary (Image: David Morris)

It is likely the remarkable optical illusion was caused by a cloud formation closer to the shore, which changed the colour of the water closer to the land.

The boat, being further away, was in a cloudless area and therefore the sky reflected the sea - making it look like the boat was floating.

Source: https://www.cornwalllive.com/news/cornwall-news/ship-floating-clouds-cornwall-leaves-5070329

 

[Trailblazer]

This made me think of the Turkish UFO videos, some of which showed lights apparently hovering above the horizon:

What looks like the horizon probably actually isn't - I think you can very faintly see the real horizon just below the lights.

 

[JMartJr]

I'm not sure exactly what's going on here, but I have two theories:

1) for a given size of ripples then at a certain angle the water surface transitions from being dominated by straight reflections (of what is behind it) to being dominated by ambient reflections (of the sky)
2) Different regions of the water surface have different ripples due to localized variations in wind.

Patchy wind produces patches of ripples -- if you like to sail, you learn how to "read the water" and look for where the wind is. From personal experience on bats and standing on the beach tryng to get a kite in the air for the event sponsors so they'll stop asking when we're going to fly something, this is more often, though not exclusively, a phenomenon of the morning (as the solar energy is added to the system and the day's winds start to get organized) or of the evening (as the opposite happens.) Of course that pattern can be squashed but a dominant wind system passing through, but for those days when your breezes are going to be the result of local warming during the day, it is something you learn to watch for.

The first bit of the following is most relevant -- a puff of wind produces darker appearing ripples water, calm beyond looking lighter because it is smoother and more reflective of the sky...

• Dark/coarse water shows puffs and larger areas of stronger wind. Besides being dark, the water will look coarse, like a surface that has been roughly filed. You have to train your eyes to see this accurately. Don't be misled by water that is dark due to cloud shadows. Also, sometimes glare can prevent you from seeing dark water.
• Sparkles on the water can be useful if they show a pattern that differentiates between coarse and smooth water. For example, this Video Blocks picture shows a denser pattern of sparkles about 2/3 of the way up, indicating coarse water. The less dense sparkles are not due to coarse water.
• Larger waves, whitecaps, and streaks are indications of progressively increasing wind. The best reference for this is the Beaufort Scale, which allows you to estimate wind speed by the visual appearance of the water

https://sailzing.com/seeing-wind-on-the-water/

 

[Max Phalange]

This twitter user explains these phenomena as inferior mirages (a few tweets into the thread):
Source: https://twitter.com/Rainmaker1973/status/1113055975102185472

 

[Trailspotter]

Another example making the rounds:

View attachment 43385

In the BBC piece, there is a second photo with a bit of coast in it:

In principle, it allows to locate the viewpoint and check the true horizon level relative the ground features. I think the viewpoint is not on a beach but on a cliff top, where South West Coast Path goes. For the latter, the true horizon must lay significantly higher.

Edit: My best guess of the viewpoint with the rocks in the water matched:

 

[Trailblazer]

In principle, it allows to locate the viewpoint and check the true horizon level relative the ground features. I think the viewpoint is not on a beach but on a cliff top, where South West Coast Path goes. For the latter, the true horizon must lay significantly higher.

I think it was actually on a beach. Not 100% sure but I think the view matches this photosphere on Google Maps:

If it is here, and the rocks do look a very close match, then the camera must be slightly to the right of where the Google image is taken from, with a cliff in the foreground on the right. Maybe taken using a longer lens from the back of the beach near where the sun is visible in the Google image, although it's hard to tell from the imagery as there is only one photo.

(Incidentally I had to laugh at the original headline - "Floating ship photographed off coast" is very much what my editor would have called a "dog bites man" story . They have changed it to "hovering" now.)

 

[Mick West]

I made an explanatory video, essentially summarizing the thread, and with some examples from the simulator.

Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=er1mh90wN-k&lc

 

[Trailspotter]

I think it was actually on a beach. Not 100% sure but I think the view matches this photosphere on Google Maps:

View attachment 43399

View attachment 43400

If it is here, and the rocks do look a very close match, then the camera must be slightly to the right of where the Google image is taken from, with a cliff in the foreground on the right. Maybe taken using a longer lens from the back of the beach near where the sun is visible in the Google image, although it's hard to tell from the imagery as there is only one photo.

(Incidentally I had to laugh at the original headline - "Floating ship photographed off coast" is very much what my editor would have called a "dog bites man" story . They have changed it to "hovering" now.)

There is a photosphere not far from my selected point. It is on the other side of underwater rocks seen at a high tide. Turning back, zooming in, and drawing imaginary line through the near and far rocks, I have come to the viewpoint marked with red arrow:

 

[deirdre]

@Trailblazer

speaking of mirages

Spoiler

kinda looks like these protuberances match up. but would this pink circled rock rise up with height?

 

[DavidB66]

I think the viewpoint is not on a beach but on a cliff top, where South West Coast Path goes. For the latter, the true horizon must lay significantly higher.

I don't know about Cornwall, but I can say from bitter experience that in South Devon (between Torquay and Teignmouth) the path doesn't stay on the cliff top! The coastline is deeply indented by streams and 'chines', and the path often goes down steep steps to the beach and then up the other side. It is more like mountain climbing than a gentle country walk! Also, check the weather forecast before trying it, because in rain the path turns to mud and becomes very treacherous.

 

[Trailblazer]

There is a photosphere not far from my selected point. It is on the other side of underwater rocks seen at a high tide. Turning back, zooming in, and drawing imaginary line through the near and far rocks, I have come to the viewpoint marked with red arrow:
View attachment 43402
View attachment 43403

I am fairly convinced it was taken on the beach at Gillan where I posted the photo in post 15. The coast path drops down to the beach here and the rocks I circled on the pics seem to be a perfect match. It looks like the viewpoint would match up if it was taken near that outcrop at the back of the beach:

https://goo.gl/maps/LnwhCUKtw1A4BDMfA

 

[Trailspotter]

I am fairly convinced it was taken on the beach at Gillan where I posted the photo in post 15. The coast path drops down to the beach here and the rocks I circled on the pics seem to be a perfect match. It looks like the viewpoint would match up if it was taken near that outcrop at the back of the beach:

https://goo.gl/maps/LnwhCUKtw1A4BDMfA

Agree. The photos were taken from that beach at a low tide. Also they probably were zoomed on the ship, bringing the rocks in the foreground 'closer'.

I may even have visited that beach some 25 years ago than we were holidaying in Cornwall for the first time and stayed in the Lizard peninsula. I did not have many photos from that holiday to check, as it was well before my first digital camera.

 

[Mick West]

Here's an interesting one:

Hard to find the original source, as it's in lots of image collections. One Reddit posts suggests the Black Sea.

But here the "sky" under the boat looks more like a band of cloud to me.

And even seems to line up with the clouds above.

So I'm wondering this one might actually be a mirage!

Or just a marine layer.

[Edit: Nah, it's just calmer water reflecting the clouds]

 

[deirdre]

Agree. The photos were taken from that beach at a low tide.

based on that rock with the protuberances, i think it was taken above the beach. is this the same beach from above (and to the side)? maybe even from the place you picked (although i think the pic was taken from behind the beach, not the side.)

https://odis.homeaway.com/odis/destination/12e0502c-56e9-44e0-b599-6a426738d372.hw5.jpg

 

[Trailspotter]

Here's an interesting one:
View attachment 43411

Hard to find the original source, as it's in lots of image collections. One Reddit posts suggests the Black Sea.

But here the "sky" under the boat looks more like a band of cloud to me.
View attachment 43412

And even seems to line up with the clouds above.

So I'm wondering this one might actually be a mirage!

Or just a marine layer.

Could it be just the clouds reflection at the sea surface? Their brighter bits may produce similar band-like reflections, like the sun and the moon do.

 

[Trailspotter]

based on that rock with the protuberances, i think it was taken above the beach.… (although i think the pic was taken from behind the beach, not the side.)

Yes, this is what @Trailblazer said and I agreed with. There is another photosphere at the same beach (slightly misplaced in Google Maps) that shows the rock with the protuberances (in the centre of the screenshot below). It was taken when water level was higher, covering some of the rocks.

From that beach, one also can see the shore on the left hand side, stretching to the horizon, so the photographer would see its true position. It was the reason for my disregarding this spot at the first go, before Mick posted additional info on the original photo. This photo probably needed zooming in a bit just to get the shoreline out of the frame.

 

[Mick West]

Could it be just the clouds reflection at the sea surface? Their brighter bits may produce similar band-like reflections, like the sun and the moon do.

Yeah, I think that's probably it. I've just been trying to figure out weird configurations of air masses that could result in an inferior mirage without reflecting the ships.

You see similar band-like reflections in front of the rocks.

 

[Mick West]

One on video, greatly aided by low-resolution.

Unusually, the Daily Mail has the best explanation I've seen.

Article:

In the footage, low-lying cloud makes it difficult to see where the pale blue water ends and the similar coloured sky begins.

Coupled with this, the section of water closer to the shore looks darker as it is in the shadow of another cloud formation.

The ship's keel is submerged in the water but it looks instead like a shallow vessel hovering above the horizon.

Source: https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9317401/Whatever-floats-boat-Ship-appears-sailing-sky-bizarre-optical-illusion.html

Source: https://www.facebook.com/colin.mccallum.1481/posts/2876054829334326

 

[Trailspotter]

One on video, greatly aided by low-resolution.

View attachment 43416

Unusually, the Daily Mail has the best explanation I've seen.

Article:

In the footage, low-lying cloud makes it difficult to see where the pale blue water ends and the similar coloured sky begins.

Coupled with this, the section of water closer to the shore looks darker as it is in the shadow of another cloud formation.

The ship's keel is submerged in the water but it looks instead like a shallow vessel hovering above the horizon.

Source: https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9317401/Whatever-floats-boat-Ship-appears-sailing-sky-bizarre-optical-illusion.html

Taken at Banff, Scotland, almost at the opposite end of Great Britain to Cornwall. Have the UK deployed the hovering boats to breach the Brexit restrictions?

 

[Mick West]

Boosting contrast and colors reveals the ocean surface.

 

[Mick West]

Article:

At first glance it appears that a world first has been captured off the coast of Porthleven - a 'flying' container ship, apparently hovering over the water.

Closer inspection confirms, however, that in fact it is a stunning optical illusion that gives the impression of a hovering vessel.

In a rare state of conditions, the sea in the foreground of the picture is choppy, with waves, while further back out to sea where the ship is anchored the water is calm and mirror-flat.

This creates the illusion of the ship apparently sitting in the sky, with the horizon line placed along top of the choppy water.

Source: https://www.falmouthpacket.co.uk/news/15242112.optical-illusion-captured-by-rosie-patterson-as-ship-appears-to-fly-off-coast-of-porthleven/

 

[Mick West]

Trying to pull out the true horizon. It's just in there, but photo is poor.

 

[Trailspotter]

Source: https://www.facebook.com/colin.mccallum.1481/posts/2876054829334326

View attachment 43417

The photo's location at Google Maps. The camera on a StreetView car would be about one metre higher then the cameraphone was, but the true horizon would still be above the road sign on the leftmost lamppost on the phone photo:

The triangular road sign on the right hand side is also there, on a more resent StreetView picture down the road:

 

[JMartJr]

I'm surprised that this sort of illusion does not seem to have led to (m)any UFO reports. Put a somewhat atypical ship without a lot of superstructure a bit further out, into the low information zone, and you'd have something looking similar to the "cigar shape" or "tic tac" UFO.

 

[Mick West]

I'm surprised that this sort of illusion does not seem to have led to (m)any UFO reports.

Unlike a plane, the ship will remain in view for a really long time, allowing much more opportunity for identification. And most ships look like ships.

I'm sure it has happened, but probably more common is when you get an actual mirage or Fata Morgana , as that makes the ship less recognizable.

 

[Mick West]

I think it was actually on a beach. Not 100% sure but I think the view matches this photosphere on Google Maps:

That matches this third photo within a few feet.

 

[Mick West]

Something I didn't really get across in my video was an accessible explanation for the difference in the color of the water surface being so abrupt. Here's a somewhat less abrupt example:

'

And the full context:

Here you can see the line between dark and light (the "false horizon") does not extend all the way across the actual horizon. On the right, you can see the water is distinct from the sky all the way up to the ship and the "real" horizon. Especially if you boost the color contrast a bit.

The simplest explanation is just a change in the texture of the water - i.e. it has smaller waves, the "calmer water" theory. This can be clearly seen here:

These regions are often some distance from the shore, and when viewed at a shallow angle the edge is essentially parallel to the horizon. The distant calmer region will form a band.

Some other explanations have been suggested, either replacing or enhancing the simple one. One is "grazing incidence" where the theory is that at a certain distance the angle between the water surface and the eye is so shallow that total reflection occurs, so distant regions reflect the sky. Suggested on YouTube:

Muonium1 day ago
this is grazing incidence reflection. we use it to make nested parabolic-hyperbolic x-ray lenses for x-ray microscope imagers. when the incident em wave strikes a flat surface at a shallow enough angle, virtually all of it is reflected. the reflected light is going to be highly polarized. a pair of polarized sunglasses should make the effect instantly vanish.

This is somewhat observed in reality, here we see the water closer is darker, and further away it's brighter.

But it lacks an abrupt line at a certain distance. Instead, in the above example, it gets gradually lighter and then we seem to get a raggedly defined region of less choppy water - again a "calmer water" explanation. This would indicate there's not a hard transition to more reflective water. Besides, the pure explanation would require flat water, or at least consistent ripple sizes across the whole lake.

A suggestion from YouTube though seems to support the angle theory:

Vladimir Efimov1 day ago
You can "create" such effects on calm water lakes by lowering your observation point (sitting or lying down or the shore), especially during summer. It's a fun thing to do with your kids, sometimes if there are people walking on the opposite shore it may appear like they're floating in the air or walking on water.

But is that a change in the angle, or simply compressing the calm region into a band? I think video is required to investigate this.

Likely it's something of a combination. Distant water will reflect the sky very well at a certain grazing angle. But if the ripples are above a certain size then you will get dark texture. With larger ripples the overall reflectivity increases, but when we get to the calmer water, then there's a sudden transition where the ripples are all small enough to be within the grazing angle, given the abrupt transition. Lowering your observation point will enhance the effect.

It's not a mirror though. The surface is still rippled, so it's essentially a diffuse reflection, reflecting the color of the sky, but not much detail. You can see this in this example where you can just make out the pattern of the large bright clouds in the calmer water.

There's also the role of fog. I'd originally thought that low fog was frequently responsible - but that does not seem to be correct. It might account for occasional "floating ships" but it's not really the same thing - if fog were the sole cause, then I think it would be a lot more apparent.

I do think that haze or mist can enhance the "calmer water" effect

 

[Mick West]

A speculative sounding theory:

Source: https://twitter.com/S_Ordibehesht/status/1368286521128849415


Ripples as diffraction grating? I'm not sure how that would work on a reflective surface. But I'm including it here for completeness.

 

[Mick West]

Another suggestion, seeming from David Morris, who took that Cornwall photo.

Article:

It is likely the remarkable optical illusion was caused by a cloud formation closer to the shore, which changed the colour of the water closer to the land.

The boat, being further away, was in a cloudless area and therefore the sky reflected the sea - making it look like the boat was floating.

Source: https://www.cornwalllive.com/news/cornwall-news/ship-floating-clouds-cornwall-leaves-5070329

It's a shame non of those clouds show up in the image. But I don't feel like they would really have this dramatic effect. All the water seems to be sunlit. But it's hard to tell without wider context.

 

[Trailblazer]

I sent the Cornwall picture to my mother who also lives in the West Country and has a view of the sea from her house. They get a lot of container ships passing by and she said she sees a similar effect from time to time. I'll have to ask her to take a photo if she sees it happen again, and figure out what is going on. She has a telescope too, which might help.

 

[Mick West]

I sent the Cornwall picture to my mother who also lives in the West Country and has a view of the sea from her house. They get a lot of container ships passing by and she said she sees a similar effect from time to time. I'll have to ask her to take a photo if she sees it happen again, and figure out what is going on. She has a telescope too, which might help.

That would be great, especially a high-resolution image. Raw would be ideal.