Unless you live in a science fiction movie or television show, you’re unlikely to see ships hovering over the water when you gaze out at the ocean. That is, unless you happened to be walking near Falmouth in Cornwall one winter’s day.
At The Guardian, Ian Sample chronicled the experience of David Morris, who went out for a walk one day and caught a glimpse of a tanker apparently hovering in the Atlantic Ocean. Morris was not witness to some heretofore-unknown maritime technology, though. Instead, he witnessed what’s known as a superior mirage — and took a photograph to document the occurrence.
Superior mirages, Sample writes, occur frequently in the Arctic and can sometimes be seen in the UK. The cause? A condition known as a temperature inversion. “[I]n a temperature inversion, warm air sits on top of a band of colder air, playing havoc with our visual perception,” Sample writes. “The inversion in Cornwall was caused by chilly air lying over the relatively cold sea with warmer air above.”
The article offers a tip for determining if the nominally-bizarre sight you’re taking in is actually a mirage. Is there anything visible below the waterline of the hovering ship? If not, it’s probably a superior mirage. If you do see something below the waterline, congratulations — you might just have seen a bona fide hovering ship.
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