What is mirage?
Mirages occur when a sharp boundary forms between two layers of air with different temperatures. If the air just above the ground is much warmer than the air above it, light bends upward. The puddle that you see on the road ahead is actually light from the blue sky and clouds in the distance. Your mind, however, treats the image as if it occurred in a straight line from your eyes, not accounting for the bending of the light. It appears as though the light from the sky is reflecting from the surface of a puddle or lake. This type of mirage is usually seen on hot days when the sun heats the air above the pavement, but it can occur whenever the air near the ground is much warmer than the air above it. Sometimes you can see images of objects other than the sky in a refracted image. Try looking at the air above a dark-colored car that has been sitting in the sun on a hot day. You may see an inverted image of the storefront on the other side of the street.
Reference: The Science Of Everything – Steve Miller
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