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  2. Atmospheric refraction - Wikipedia

    en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atmospheric_refraction

    Diagram showing displacement of the Sun's image at sunrise and sunset Comparison of inferior and superior mirages due to differing air refractive indices, n. Atmospheric refraction is the deviation of light or other electromagnetic wave from a straight line as it passes through the atmosphere due to the variation in air density as a function of height. [1]

  3. Atmospheric optics - Wikipedia

    en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atmospheric_optics

    Depending on the meteorological situation the effect will present the Sun as a line or a square (which is sometimes referred to as the "rectangular sun"), made up of flattened hourglass shapes. The mirage requires rays of sunlight to have an inversion layer for hundreds of kilometres, and depends on the inversion layer's temperature gradient .

  4. Visible spectrum - Wikipedia

    en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Visible_spectrum

    The visible range of most animals evolved to match the optical window, which is the range of light that can pass through the atmosphere. The ozone layer absorbs almost all UV light (below 315 nm). [19] However, this only affects cosmic light (e.g. sunlight), not terrestrial light (e.g. Bioluminescence).

  5. Refraction - Wikipedia

    en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Refraction

    Since the pressure is lower at higher altitudes, the refractive index is also lower, causing light rays to refract towards the earth surface when traveling long distances through the atmosphere. This shifts the apparent positions of stars slightly when they are close to the horizon and makes the sun visible before it geometrically rises above ...

  6. Fermat's principle - Wikipedia

    en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fermat's_principle

    Fermat's principle is most familiar, however, in the case of visible light: it is the link between geometrical optics, which describes certain optical phenomena in terms of rays, and the wave theory of light, which explains the same phenomena on the hypothesis that light consists of waves.

  7. Halo (optical phenomenon) - Wikipedia

    en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Halo_(optical_phenomenon)

    A halo (from Ancient Greek ἅλως (hálōs) 'threshing floor, disk') [1] is an optical phenomenon produced by light (typically from the Sun or Moon) interacting with ice crystals suspended in the atmosphere. Halos can have many forms, ranging from colored or white rings to arcs and spots in the sky.

  8. Scientists confirm 'Earth-like' planet with atmosphere ... - AOL

    www.aol.com/news/2017-04-07-scientists-confirm...

    The discovery that GJ 1132b has an atmosphere is a key step in the search for life outside our solar system. Scientists confirm 'Earth-like' planet with atmosphere discovered 39 light-years from Earth

  9. Optics - Wikipedia

    en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Optics

    This causes the spectrum coming out of a prism to appear with red light the least refracted and blue/violet light the most refracted. Conversely, if a pulse travels through an anomalously (negatively) dispersive medium, high-frequency components travel faster than the lower ones, and the pulse becomes negatively chirped , or down-chirped ...