Heat Haze
Heat haze, also called heat shimmer, refers to the distortive effect experienced when viewing objects through a layer of heated air, for example across hot asphalt or through the exhaust gases produced by jet engines.
Convection causes the temperature and hence the refractive index of the air to vary, and so a blurred shimmering effect is produced which affects the ability to resolve objects, the effect being increased when the image is magnified through a telescope or telephoto lens.
Heat Haze is not related to the atmospheric phenomenon of haze.
Read more about this topic: Mirage
Famous quotes containing the words heat and/or haze:
“The Soul rules over matter. Matter may pass away like a mote in the sunbeam, may be absorbed into the immensity of God, as a mist is absorbed into the heat of the Sun—but the soul is the kingdom of God, the abode of love, of truth, of virtue.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“But before the extremity of the Cape had completely sunk, it appeared like a filmy sliver of land lying flat on the ocean, and later still a mere reflection of a sand-bar on the haze above. Its name suggests a homely truth, but it would be more poetic if it described the impression which it makes on the beholder.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)