Monica Schaffner was out on a walk when she noticed a huge ship out in the distance. At the time, other ships were traveling regularly.
“It was like witnessing something surreal,” the woman told the New Zealand Herald. “I was certain that my eyes were playing tricks on me. I wanted to make sure my hubby agreed with my point of view.”
“I also asked him to pull over so I could take pictures of him.”
A New Zealand resident discovered an optical illusion known as Fata Morgana, sometimes known as a mirage, on the beach near Mount Maunganui.
Fata Morgana mirages greatly distort the thing or items on which they are focused, making them unidentifiable. On land, at sea, in the polar regions, and in deserts, a Fata Morgana can be discovered.
In a steep thermal inversion where an atmospheric duct has formed, light beams are twisted as they pass between air layers of various temperatures, generating the optical phenomena.
A thermal inversion is a meteorological phenomenon that occurs when a distinct layer of warmer air builds on top of a layer of slightly cooler air. Warmer air at the surface is absorbed by colder air higher up in this temperature inversion, which is the polar opposite of what typically happens.
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