Fata Morgana - Mirage

The Fata Morgana effects are mirages above, different from the inferior mirages, which are more common and create the illusion of distant water lakes in the desert or on roads with very hot asphalt.
Fata Morgana (Espejismos)
In this case the mountain isn't really there
Fata Morgana (Espejismos)
In this case you can see on the shores of china as a city (which not is there) fleet at sea
Fata Morgana mirages are an unusual and complex form of superior Mirage that is seen in a narrow strip right above the horizon. It is an Italian phrase derived from vulgar latin for "fairy" and the wizards of the rey Arturo Morgana le Fay, of the belief that these mirages, often in the Strait of Messina, were castles of fairy in the air, soil or false created by witchcraft to lure sailors to their death. Although the Fata Morgana term sometimes is incorrectly applied to other, more common of mirages, Fata Morgana real is not the same as a simple upper Mirage, nor is the same as an inferior mirage.

Fata Morgana mirages distort the object or objects that are often based in a meaningful way, so that the object is completely unrecognizable. Fata Morgana may be on land or at sea, in the polar regions or deserts. This type of Mirage can commit almost any distant object, including ships, Islands, and the coast.
The Fata Morgana often changes quickly. The Mirage includes several images reversed (of head) and erect (right side up) images that are stacked one on top of another. Fata Morgana mirages are also displayed alternately compressed areas that may stretch.
This optical phenomenon occurs because light rays curve through layers of air of different temperatures in a steep thermal inversion in an atmospheric duct that has formed. (A thermal inversion is an atmospheric condition where the hot air in a well-defined place escapes over a significantly cooler layer of air.) This inversion of temperature is the opposite of what normally happens; (the air is generally hotter near the surface, and is cooled further up)
In times of calm, a layer of much warmer air can be more cold air dense, forming an atmospheric duct which acts as a refraction of the lens, producing a series of two images inverted and upright. The Fata Morgana requires a duct to be present; the thermal inversion by itself is not enough to produce this type of mirage. While a thermal inversion is often carried out without having an air duct, air duct cannot exist without that first forms a thermal inversion.

Observation of a Fata Morgana

Fata Morgana (Espejismos)
Diagram schematic that explains the Fata Morgana Mirage
The Fata Morgana is observed more frequently in the polar regions, especially in large sheets of ice that have a low uniform temperature. However, it can be seen in almost any area. In the polar regions Fata Morgana phenomenon is observed in days relatively cold, however, in deserts, in the oceans and lakes, a Fata Morgana can be seen on hot days.
To generate the phenomenon Fata Morgana, the inversion has to be sufficiently strong so the curvature of rays of light within the inversion layer is stronger than the curvature of the Earth. In these circumstances, the rays when folded create arcs. An observer needs to be inside or under a duct air in order to be able to see a Fata Morgana.
The Fata Morgana can be observed from any height within laatm of the Earth, from the level of the sea to the peaks of the mountains, and even including the vision of the aircraft.
Fata Morgana (Espejismos)
A sequence of a Fata Morgana in the Farallon Islands as seen from San Francisco
The Fata Morgana can be described as a very complex superior Mirage with more than three erect and inverted distorted images. Due to the changing conditions of the atmosphere, a Fata Morgana can change in different ways in just a few seconds of time, including the change of becoming a superior Mirage direct.
The image above shows a sequence of sixteen picture frames of a mirage of the Farallon Islands, seen from San Francisco, the pictures were taken on the same day.
In the first fourteen boxes, the alternations of Fata Morgana items displayed to mirages of air compressed and stretched zones. The last two pictures were photographed hours later, at the time of the sunset. At that time, the air was cooler, while the Ocean was probably a little warmer, causing the thermal inversion that is not as extreme as it was a few hours before. A mirage was still present at that time, but was not as complex as a few hours before sunset: the Mirage was no longer a Fata Morgana, but that it had become a simple mirage.
Fata Morgana mirages are visible to the naked eye, but in order to be able to see the detail within them, it is better to watch them through binoculars, a telescope, or as it is the case in the images here, through a telephoto lens.
Gabriel Gruber (1740-1805) and Tobias Gruber (1744-1806), who observed Fata Morgana on top of Lake Cerknica, were the first to study them in a laboratory.

Etymology

"The Fata Morgana" ("the Morgana fairy") is the name of Morgan le Fay in Italian. Morgan le Fay, alternatively known as Morgane, Morgain, Morgana and other variants, was described as a powerful sorceress and antagonist of King Arthur and Guinevere in the Arthurian legend. As its name implies, the figure of Morgan seems to have been originally a fairy (Fata, Le Fay) instead of a human female. Early works featuring Morgan do not elaborate in nature, that doesn't describe his role as that of a fairy or maga. It was later described as a woman, half sister of King Arthur, and a sorceress.
After the final battle of King Arthur at Camlann, Morgan le Fay has his half-brother Arthur Avalon. Medieval times suggests the location of Avalon far beyond Glastonbury. Between them, the other side of the Earth in the Antipodes, Sicily, and elsewhere in the Mediterranean.
The Legends claim the sirens in the waters around Sicily to attract the unwary to his death. Morgan le Fay is associated not only with Etna, but also with sirens. In a French medieval Arthurian romance Floriant et foil, is called "the salt of the sea fairies lover" (the mestresse [des] Fées la mer Salée).
From that moment, Fata Morgana has partnered with Sicily.
Fata Morgana (Espejismos)
A drawing of 1844 entitled: "the Fata Morgana, as you can be seen in the port of Messina"

Information and images of origin in: Fata morgana - Espejismo