Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-2brh9 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-27T13:51:55.776Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Reconstruction of an atmospheric temperature profile from a 166-year old polar mirage

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 October 2009

W. G. Rees
Affiliation:
Scott Polar Research Institute, University of Cambridge, Lensfield Road, Cambridge CB2 1ER

Abstract

A method has been developed for deducing the variation with height of the atmospheric temperature, using the observed form of a mirage as the input. This method is applicable to the class of mirages in which the object appears undistorted, although magnified, vertically displaced, and quite possibly inverted: here applied to an observation of this class of mirage made by Dr William Scoresby in 1822, it is used to deduce the nature of the temperature inversion prevailing on that occasion.

Type
Notes
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1988

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Fraser, A. B. 1977. Solutions of the refraction and extinction integrals for use in inversions and image formation. Applied Optics 16: 160.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Kaye, G. W. C. and Laby, T. H. 1984. Tables of Physical and Chemical Constants, 14th edition. London: Longman.Google Scholar
Lehn, W.H. (1983) Inversion of superior mirage data to compute temperature profiles. Journal of the Optical Society of America 73: 1622.Google Scholar
Lehn, W. H. and Morrish, J. S. 1986. A three-parameter inferior mirage model for optical sensing of surface layer temperature profiles. IEEE Transactions, Geoscience Remote Sensing GE24: 940.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rees, W. G. 1988 Polar mirages. Polar Record 24(150): 193–98.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Scoresby-Jackson, R.E. (1861) The life of William Scoresby. London: Newnes.Google Scholar
Whipple, F. J. W. 1921. Meteorological Optics, in Glazebrook, R. (editor). Dictionary of Applied Physics, III: 519. London: Macmillan.Google Scholar