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Q: Mirage of Corsica as Seen from Nice ( No Answer,   4 Comments )
Question  
Subject: Mirage of Corsica as Seen from Nice
Category: Science > Physics
Asked by: jbhipps-ga
List Price: $3.00
Posted: 06 Nov 2004 07:11 PST
Expires: 06 Dec 2004 07:11 PST
Question ID: 425280
When I was in Nice, France, my host described to me a phenomenon
whereby during certain times of the year, Corsica would appear to loom
above the horizon and could be seen from the coast of Nice clearly,
its people, terrain, etc. magnified so that they could be seen
clearly with the naked eye.  I need to know the name of this
phenomenon and ideally some background and definition of it.  The
closest I've been able to come is a reference to a study Maraldi did
of the phenomenon - but I can't find a name or a summary.
Answer  
There is no answer at this time.

Comments  
Subject: Re: Mirage of Corsica as Seen from Nice
From: fp-ga on 06 Nov 2004 07:56 PST
 
Some pictures:

http://www.alpix.com/nice/htmlfr/pictcors.htm

http://www.06nice.com/somsud/gcors/gcorse2.htm
Subject: Re: Mirage of Corsica as Seen from Nice
From: omnivorous-ga on 06 Nov 2004 07:56 PST
 
JBHipps --

Corsica is about 100 miles from Nice.  The only phenomena I'm aware of
that would make it visible would be light refraction.  There's a
particular phenomena called "looming" that might explain it.

Though it's incidental to this Google Answer on how far one can see,
check the reference at the end:
http://answers.google.com/answers/threadview?id=420365

Best regards,

Omnivorous-GA
Subject: Re: Mirage of Corsica as Seen from Nice
From: racecar-ga on 07 Nov 2004 17:44 PST
 
There is no way that people could be seen with the naked eye at a
distance of 100 miles.  However, it is possible for light to curve so
that things that would normally be below the horizon are visible. 
This happens because the air is denser closer to the surface of the
earth, so light travels slower there.  If there is an increase in
temperature with height, instead of the usual decrease, this density
gradient will be greater than usual, cause more curvature than usual,
and making things visible that normally wouldn't be.
Subject: Re: Mirage of Corsica as Seen from Nice
From: karies-ga on 14 Nov 2004 00:51 PST
 
Those two things, looming and seeing person's noses, are at least from
the physics side unrelated. Looming: just as racecar-ga said, you need
cold air on the sea, and warm air ontop (print at
http://www.suite101.com/print_article.cfm/13646/92077). The light
coming over from Corse is bent, but as we all have learned that light
travels straight (a pretty good assumption) Corse seems to float above
the horizon. There's another part that plays a role: if the sea's
color at the horizon doesn't allow you to exactly tell where the sea
"ends" (see this picture on fp-ga's site:
http://www.06nice.com/somsud/gcors/vgcors/bcouv.jpg), the mountains
seem to be disconnected from the sea. This can happen e.g. due to high
humidity on the sea level, showing up as fog in thze distance. But as
it's only at sea level, the mountains stick out above. This is what
happened on the above picture. Okay, that was part one.

The closeness: we cannot estimate large distances properly. But we
have some hints which we use unconsciously. One of them is the clarity
of the object: if it's fuzzy, then there is a lot of air in between,
so we know it's far away. Sometimes this doesn't work, though: if the
air is exceptionally dry things don't flicker around - they're as
clear as a car 10 meters (30ft :-) away. This gives the impression you
can grab it, and you can actually see a _lot_ better thanks to the
clear view (ask astronomers about the correlation between dry air and
their mood when using e.g. optical telescopes). Btw, this often
happens near mountains; it's called "Föhn" in the german speaking part
of the Alpes - but I can't give you the french word. It really is
amazing, though, seeing a huge mountain sitting right in your
backyard.

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